Political strongman
A strongman is a type of authoritarian political leader.
Political scientists Brian Lai and Dan Slater identify strongman rule as a form of authoritarian rule characterized by autocratic military dictatorships, as distinct from three other categories of authoritarian rule, specifically machine (oligarchic party dictatorships); bossism (autocratic party dictatorships); and juntas (oligarchic military dictatorships).[1]
A 2014 study published in the Annual Review of Political Science journal found that strongmen and juntas are both more likely to engage in human rights violations and civil wars than civilian dictatorships.[2] However, military strongmen are more belligerent than military regimes or civilian dictatorships—i.e., they are more likely to initiate interstate armed conflict.[2] It is theorized that this is because strongmen have greater reason to fear assassination, imprisonment, or exile after being removed from power.[2] The rule of military strongmen is more likely to end through an insurgency, popular uprising, or invasion; by contrast, the rule of military regimes and civilian dictatorships are more likely to end in democratization.[2]
Authoritarian leaders classified by political scientists as strongmen include
- Juan Domingo Perón (Argentina)
- Mao Zedong (People's Republic of China)
- Deng Xiaoping (People's Republic of China)
- Xi Jinping (People's Republic of China)[3]
- Chiang Kai-shek (Republic of China)
- Fidel Castro (Cuba),
- Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt),
- Ioannis Metaxas (Greece),
- Ferdinand Marcos (Philippines)
- Ayub Khan (Pakistan),
- Vladimir Putin (Russia),
- Siad Barre (Somalia),
- Salah Jadid (Syria),
- Hafez al-Assad (Syria), and
- Idi Amin (Uganda),[4]
- Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Turkey),
- Hun Sen (Cambodia),[5]
- Suharto (Indonesia),[6]
- Indira Gandhi (India) and both
- Omar Torrijos[7] and
- Manuel Noriega of Panama.[8]
See also
References
- ^ "Institutions of the Offensive: Domestic Sources of Dispute Initiation in Authoritarian Regimes, 1950-1992". American Journal of Political Science. 50 (1): 113–126. 2006. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5907.2006.00173.x. JSTOR 3694260.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|authors=ignored (help) - ^ a b c d Geddes, Barbara; Frantz, Erica; Wright, Joseph G. (2014). "Military Rule". Annual Review of Political Science. 17: 147–162. doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-032211-213418.
- ^ Baranovitch, Nimrod (4 March 2021). "A Strong Leader for A Time of Crisis: Xi Jinping's Strongman Politics as A Collective Response to Regime Weakness". Journal of Contemporary China. 30 (128): 249–265. doi:10.1080/10670564.2020.1790901. ISSN 1067-0564.
- ^ Jessica L. P. Weeks, Dictators at War and Peace (Cornell University Press, 2014), pp. 76-80.
- ^ "Hun Sen: Cambodia's strongman prime minister". BBC News. 27 July 2018.
- ^ Neuman, Scott (27 January 2008). "Longtime Indonesian Strongman Suharto Dies at 86". National Public Radio.
- ^ Michael L. Conniff, Panama and the United States: The End of the Alliance (University of Georgia Press: 3d ed. 2012), p. 140.
- ^ Michael L. Conniff & Gene E. Bigler, Modern Panama: From Occupation to Crossroads of the Americas (Cambridge University Press, 2019), p. 29.