It is striking to see how many contemporary leaders fit the strongman mould. They rule on nearly every continent—and are doing huge damage
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskIt is hard to dispute the view that those three, along with the likes of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, Viktor Orban, the newly re-elected prime minister of Hungary, and Jair Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil, share certain traits.
It is striking to see how many contemporary leaders fit the strongman mould. What with Donald Trump and Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, all three of the world’s most populous countries were led by would-be or actual strongmen until last year, by Mr Rachman’s reckoning. They are present in Europe , in Africa and Asia .
The harm is not just to the people they oppress or the national political systems that they corrode. Strongmen also chip away at global institutions, international norms and multilateral co-operation. Many are suspicious of free trade. Few are inclined to endure much inconvenience to curb climate change. They are prone to adventurism and aggression in foreign policy—witness Mr Putin’s murderous invasion of Ukraine.
But the ongoing war there, which began after the book was written, also suggests the limits of Mr Rachman’s analysis. His strongmen show little solidarity or diplomatic allegiance to one another. Some have sided with Mr Putin, others have opposed him and still others are sitting on the fence. Identifying someone as a strongman is only a partial guide to how he is likely to behave.
Mr Rachman’s most powerful point concerns not the strongmen themselves, but Western politicians’ and commentators’ wishful thinking about them . When Mr Putin succeeded Boris Yeltsin, he was hailed as a man who could stabilise Russia’s listing democracy. Mr Erdogan, too, was greeted with optimism, as someone who could reconcile Islam and democracy. Abiy was going to put an end to Ethiopia’s ethnic divisions;was going to drag the Saudi monarchy into the 21st century; and so on.
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