In an autocratic regime the autocrat becomes increasingly disconnected from the opinion on the ground for several reasons:
- Security forces drive opposition voices further underground
- A culture of fear prevents bad news from flowing up (“shoot the messenger”)
- Echo chamber effect among the inner circle
..the shah was steadily maneuvering himself into a trap, a potentially fatal snare common to autocrats everywhere. First, as his security forces were becoming more repressive, so his opposition was going deeper underground. To combat this required greater surveillance, greater repression, which pushed the most militant opposition even further out of view. Taken to its extreme, the most tyrannical ruler with the most extensive secret police agency ends up having the least sense of what is actually happening in his society.
Scott Anderson - King of Kings1
1. Anderson, S. King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation. (Doubleday, New York, 2025).