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ISTANBUL — This siren is supposed to be a lament, but it sounds like a warning. Screaming across all of Turkey — over the once-besieged Gezi Park in Istanbul, beyond the $615-million palace of pomposity in Ankara, all the way down to the inky rivers of ISIL oil flowing in from Syria — it wails to mourn the passing of the democratic iconoclast Ataturk 76 years ago.

Or maybe it mourns his vision. As they do every Nov. 10, neighbours lean over their balconies and shopkeepers pause their brooms mid-sweep, peering up at nothing but sound. If they’re looking for a liberal democracy, they won’t see it here.

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Turkey’s not a dictatorship, of course. But that’s no longer the point. In many countries, the siren of authoritarianism— a cacophony of battered civil rights, scapegoated minorities and nationalistic fervour — now blares even over ballot boxes. Elections and capitalism on the one hand, and authoritarianism on the other, are clasping each other. And while Turkey’s heavy-handed, sort-of-but-not-really-democratic type of rule is becoming increasingly common, established liberal democracies aren’t quite putting a finger on what its type of rule is, and how to respond effectively.