New Delhi, April 7 -- A reactionary anti-democratic ethos born and bred in America has come to infect democracies around the world. This is the central thesis of a timely new book by the journalist Zack Beauchamp, The Reactionary Spirit: How America's Most Insidious Political Tradition Swept the World.

Through a mix of political history and reportage, The Reactionary Spirit reveals how the United States serves the birthplace of a new authoritarian style, and why we're now seeing its evolution in a diverse set of countries ranging from Hungary to Israel to India.

Beauchamp elaborated on the thesis of his new book on a recent episode of Grand Tamasha, a weekly podcast on Indian politics and policy, co-produced by HT and the Carnegie Endow...