The Age of the Strongman

February 15, 2022
An examination of the modern rise of authoritarianism. Vladimir Putin was first to the gate, writes Rachman, chief foreign affairs commentator for the Financial Times. Taking power in 2000, he set about reversing democratic gains won since the fall of the Soviet Union, crushing political opposition, and sweeping aside institutions obstructing his absolutist rule. Xi Jinping, "clearly nostalgic for some of the Maoist themes of his youth," followed suit in China. The nub, writes the author, is that neither Russia nor China is a superpower as such--not yet, anyway--meaning that their authoritarian power does not yet extend far beyond their borders. Not so with the U.S. under Donald Trump, who clearly studied Putin and other dictators, trading in all the hallmarks of strongman rule: a disdain for the courts and other democratic institutions, a strongly enforced cult of personality, nationalism and anti-globalism, a base that is uneducated and rural, and the insistence that American greatness is undermined by the machinations of the "deep state" and Jewish financier George Soros. Interestingly, writes Rachman, that notion of the deep state is borrowed from the authoritarian regime in Turkey, while the Soros meme is widespread among rightists and antisemites across the world. Just as interestingly, he observes, the intellectual basis for the new authoritarianism is international, linking enough suspect characters to justify a conspiracy theory: Trump confidant Steve Bannon, say, hangs out with Italian fascists and Putin associates and reads the work of Carl Schmitt, the now-rehabilitated Nazi legal philosopher. "Trump's defeat in 2020 does not mean that the danger has passed," writes the author. However, by way of small comfort, he also observes that even the longest-lived authoritarian regimes have shelf lives, hastened by the general incompetence of their leaders in the face of such things as the pandemic. An illuminating blend of dark warnings about the present and optimism that strongman rule can never prevail in the long term.

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February 21, 2022
Journalist Rachman (Easternization) analyzes in this wide-ranging account the “similar playbook” used by China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, and other authoritarian world leaders. The shared tactics he identifies include appealing to populist nationalism (e.g., Viktor Orbán’s declaration of “Hungary for Hungarians”), openly challenging the West (e.g., China’s funding of infrastructure projects in developing countries and Bolsonaro’s aggressively antienvironmental policies), and jailing opposition leaders (e.g., Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 2016 arrest of Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas on terrorism-related charges). Contending that the world is enduring “the most sustained global assault on liberal democratic values since the 1930s,” Rachman notes that even Western politicians including Boris Johnson and Donald Trump have used “bitter social divisions” as a means of rallying support. In contrast, he credits Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Emmanuel Macron with defying “the strongman model.” Though Rachman de-emphasizes the differences between authoritarian leaders and doesn’t fully reckon with why their criticisms of Western liberalism and globalism have struck a chord, the scope of his reporting impresses. This astute survey offers valuable perspective on a worrisome global trend.

March 15, 2022
International journalist Rachman provides a cogent analysis of the recent proliferation of right-wing despots with a distinct aversion to democratic ideals. In the twenty-first century, there has been a backlash against the post-WWII trend toward liberal democracy with the election of right-wing authoritarians who have gone to great effort to diminish or completely dismantle the institutions of democracy in their countries. These include Russia, Poland, Hungary, Brazil, India, Israel, and even the U.S. and the UK. Even some of the remaining bastions of liberal democracy such as Germany, France, Canada, and Ireland are facing growing movements led by right-wing demagogues. Rachman explores the history of several of these strongmen, including the rise of some in nondemocracies like China and Saudi Arabia. There are common threads: hatred of the free press, co-opting of independent judiciary, and aversion to human rights, including those pertaining to the LGBTQ community. Rachman's analysis is troubling but not entirely pessimistic, as he is well aware of the cyclical nature of history. It is also readable, engaging, and extremely worthwhile.

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