The rise of new, non-violent dictatorships. Are we in one?

VOX EU, a platform for scholars from multiple fields, had a very interesting article on the rise of modern authoritarianism. These are not, the article made it very clear, the usual Stalin/Hitler/Pinochet/Pol Pot type that employed mass violence and mass murder to subjugate their citizens. The modern ones rule with the pretenses and trappings of a democracy.

As laid out by the Vox EU article, the new dictatorships have adopted to the modern world of “ open borders, knowledge-based economics and global media.” They employ very little violence and they simulate the ways of legitimate democracies, including the holding of regular elections. So what do they do instead of putting dissidents in gulags and mass murdering them?