Gideon Rachman

Desde el comienzo del milenio, cuando Vladimir Putin tomó el poder en Rusia, diferentes líderes autoritarios han llegado a dominar la política mundial. Autodenominados hombres fuertes han llegado al poder en Moscú, Beijing, Delhi, Brasilia, Budapest, Ankara, Riyadh y Washington.

¿Cómo y por qué llegó este nuevo estilo de liderazgo de hombre fuerte? ¿Qué posibilidades hay de que conduzca a una guerra o al colapso económico? ¿Y qué fuerzas existen no solo para mantener a raya a estos hombres fuertes, sino también para revertir la tendencia?

Estos líderes fomentan el culto a la personalidad. Son nacionalistas y conservadores sociales, con poca tolerancia a las minorías, la disidencia o los intereses extranjeros. En casa afirman defender a la gente común contra las élites globalistas; en el extranjero, se presentan como las encarnaciones de sus naciones. Y no solo están operando en sistemas políticos autoritarios, sino que han comenzado a surgir en el corazón de la democracia liberal.

Gideon Rachman se ha codeado con la mayoría de estos líderes y, como periodista, ha informado desde sus países. Mientras que otros han tratado de comprender su ascenso individualmente, Rachman analiza el fenómeno en su conjunto y descubre la compleja y, a menudo, sorprendente interacción entre estos líderes identificando temas comunes, encontrando coherencia global en el caos y ofreciendo un nuevo y audaz paradigma para navegar por nuestro mundo.

Desde Putin, Trump y Bolsonaro hasta Erdogan, Xi y Modi, La era de los líderes autoritarios brinda el primer análisis verdaderamente global del nuevo nacionalismo y ofrece un nuevo y audaz paradigma para comprender nuestro mundo.… (mehr)

This is an easy read about authoritarian strongmen who have become the living embodiment of politics in their respective countries (Russia, China), and populist strongmen who have managed to get elected in democratic countries (US, Brazil, Turkey, Hungary) and tried to focus political life around their own person with varying degrees of success.

The author is a columinst for the Financial Times and this seems to have put some limits on his writing. He presents a biography of each strongman and his "accomplishments", but these presentations are quite brief. If you are a regular reader of the Economist, for example, you will already be very familiar with just about everything the author has to say. He just tells the same story which these magazines already told as it was happening.

Perhaps it is misguided to criticize a book for its omissions, but I think the book could clearly have been better if the author had drawn some general parallels or comparisons between how these leaders came to power. Or he could have explained what forms of patronage each leader has fostered to remain in power and control the institutions of the state. Or he could have offered some speculation on what kinds of institutions, people and actions might be needed for wresting power away from a strongman or preventing him from taking power in the first place.

In conclusion, if you have never heard of Viktor Orban or Rodrigo Duterte, this is probably a good book for you. But if you've already read dozens of articles about them, then this book will not teach you anything you didn't already know. I would in that case recommend that you instead catch up with the latest developments in the world of strongmen through the Financial Times or the Economist.… (mehr)

"The unspoken thought... was that Trump himself had introduced some of the habits of a dictatorship into the heart of the world's greatest democracies The president's wild rhetoric, his fondness for military parades, his tolerance for conflicts of interest, and intolerance for journalists and judges are all features of the "strongman style" in politics - a style that, until recently was thought to be alien to the mature democracies of the West." That introduction sets the book's tone, which goes on to describe some of the strongmen around the world who trump so respects. Putin tops the list, but also Turkey's Erdogan, China's Xi Jinping, India's Modi, Hungary's Orban, rumple-haired Boris Johnson, the Philipines' Duterte, and Israel's Netanyahu. The world seems to love its strongmen. For those of us who prefer democracy and thought we were immune politics has become a frightening business.… (mehr)