Authoritarian Persecution

Authoritarian persecution is rarely random.

Marginalized communities are often targeted because they can be made politically useful to those seeking power. They can be blamed for social change, cast as threats to public order, isolated from potential allies, and transformed into symbols around which fear, resentment, and loyalty are organized.

Authoritarian Persecution: Why They Attack Marginalized Communities and How They Do It examines the political logic behind that process.

Zoë Roberts explores how authoritarian movements identify vulnerable groups, construct narratives of danger, normalize exclusion, weaken legal and social protections, and convert prejudice into policy, surveillance, coercion, and violence. The book examines the institutions, rhetoric, incentives, and social dynamics that allow persecution to move from political messaging into everyday governance.

It also asks a deeper question: why do some societies resist these campaigns while others permit them to expand?

Persecution is not simply hatred expressed through government. It is often a technology of power.

Understanding how that technology works is the first step toward recognizing when marginalization is becoming something more dangerous.