Liberal democracy is under threat in both the Global South and North from countries as different as the Philippines, Turkey and Brazil to India, Hungary and the United States. If Vladimir Putin is to be believed, then “The liberal idea has become obsolete. It has come into conflict with the overwhelming majority of the population” (Financial Times 27 June 2019). Rather than test this statement against local, ethnographic examples, this roundtable asks what conditions make such a statement seem reasonable, even if debatable, and what allows its political sentiment to gain momentum around the world? This challenge to liberal democracy appears concurrently with many developments that resemble classic elements of Twentieth century totalitarianism, including growing 1) reliance upon simplified narratives of history (along with increased dismissal of facts to the contrary); 2) hostility to migrants, refugees, racialized minorities, women, and people with alternative gender/sexual orientations (along with an increase in masculine nationalism); 3) contempt for parliamentary procedures and independent judiciaries (along with an increased acceptance of unconstrained executive authority); 4) contempt for political plurality (along with an increase in narrowly defined ideas of patriotism, religious piety, and social conduct); 5) contempt for respectful, civil discourse on the grounds that it precludes speaking truth to power (along with an increase in humiliating political rivals and those defined as “other”); 6) sentiments of “anti-elitism” (along with the rhetorical argument that “real people” are uneducated, rural, and traditional). We can add from the Twenty-first century the role of social media in creating antagonistic political communities. These trends pose challenges for the discipline because they demand explanations for similarities in diverse parts of the world whereas anthropology often prefers to emphasize differences. To paraphrase George Monbiot, what makes possible a shared culture of executive impunity in otherwise culturally different places? What allows a similar political sentiment to appear in countries with such different histories, positions in the global economy, and experiences with colonial and post-colonial power? One possible factor, though not a sole cause, is the global exportation of the European state form through colonization without which totalitarianism as a modern phenomenon would never have appeared, first in Europe then elsewhere. Yet paradoxically, totalitarian struggles both rely on the state to leverage power and disparage it as a corrupt, elitist, and bureaucratic edifice that impedes the people’s movement (however the people might be defined). Along with the state, then, perhaps the revolutionary European idea of the sovereign “people,” understood abstractly, who must face no constraints lest their freedom be diminished, plays a powerful rhetoric role. This roundtable will have each participant delivering a set piece on the roundtable theme followed by an approximately thirty minute discussion with the audience.