The fifth century BCE tyrant Pisistratus was an outrageous liar and one of history’s first populists. He was an Athenian aristocratic who appealed to the poor and working classes by asking for their protection from his imaginary enemies who he claimed inflicted his self-inflicted wounds. He ruled Athens for some years, but his actual enemies ousted him. Yet he shortly thereafter regained his rule by another enormous farce. He rode back into Athens in an opulent chariot beside a tall beauty who he claimed was the goddess Athena herself who supported him. The populations loved this. He had betrayed his aristocrat class, but his elaborate deceits won him the trust and faith of the masses. They chose one Athens’ last tyrants.
Authoritarian rulers come to power, and maintain rule, with charisma and phony appeals to patriotism, nationalism, and religion. Their power is not always sustained with the use of force, although some type of violence is usually in the playbook. In modern democratic or somewhat democratic states, strongmen take control of the state mostly by appealing for popular support sometimes with the help of a military coup but more often by an election. Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil was elected president and Silvio Berlusconi was elected Prime Minister of Italy several times. Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines was elected as were Vladimir Putin, Victor Orban, and Donald Trump. Adolf Hitler and Silvio Berlusconi were appointed to leadership in democratic Germany and Italy. When strongmen leaders use the force of a military coup to gain control, they must maintain their power with the support of a large part of the public. Francisco Franco came to power by a coup but stayed in office with the support of nationalists and church and civilian power brokers. Muammar Gaddafi used the military to take control of Libya and maintained his power with moderately leftist policies to insure the support of the people.
The historian and Guggenheim Fellow Ruth Ben-Ghiat shows how similar are the modern anti-democratic demagogic rulers in her book Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. The strongmen wreak chaos in their nations and increase their power using extra-legal means to control the discord. Authoritarians’ power comes “at the expense of the legislative and judicial branches of government.” The tools of the trade are common among the strongmen: censorship, disinformation, discrediting opponents verbally or violently, blaming economic hardship on an enemy such as a minority or immigrant population, alliances with religious factions and wealthy plutocrats, posturing as messianic saviors, and most of all outlandish lies.
Here are just some of the examples from Ben-Ghiat’s book:
One of the methods of strongmen is to convince a disaffected population that he is their savior. Pinochet claimed he was appointed by God to save Argentina. Franco’s claim that a “higher power intended him to save Spain from Marxism became an element of his charismatic authority.” Maga rallies are filled with prayers and an adulation that can easily be called worship. At Trump’s 2024 election watch party, the crowd broke out in a racous rendition of the hymn “How Great Thou Art.” Moammar Gaddafi said that Allah had appointed him to rid Libya of evil forces.
Strongmen gather strength by showing how his opponents oppress him. “Mussolini prepared the script used by today’s authoritarians that casts the leader as a victim of his domestic enemies.” Gaddafi blamed the Italians and the West in general for victimizing him and Libya. Berlusconi claimed that his legal troubles were nothing but his enemies trying to discredit him. The Italian parliament then passed a law granting Berlusconi immunity. He said he was a victim of a “witch hunt.” Trump claimed that his impeachments were merely attempts by the left wing to hurt him personally. He called all the various investigations “witch hunts.”
The people themselves are portrayed by authoritarians as victims too. The strongman wants to convince the population that times were better in the past and that some enemy has stolen their former greatness and prosperity. A call for a return to an idyllic past is always part of the despot’s narrative. For Hitler, the Jews were the enemies of the people but sometimes he claimed that the French and Marxists ruined Germany’s noble heritage. Hitler and also blamed the elites of Germany. Putin blames America or any vocal opponent. Early on, Putin blamed Chechens for discord and violence in Russia. For Trump, American are the victims of massive immigration fostered by the weakness of the elites. For Berlusconi, it was immigrants who were the enemies to blame.
To return the nation to its former greatness, the strongman must be personally strong, virile, and dominant over the weak and a master of women. Mussolini promoted photographs of himself in powerful and manly poses including bare-chested pictures. Putin does the same. The Kremlin often releases photographs of Putin in manly poses. Ben-Ghiat writes “Gaddafi, Berlusconi, and Trump vaunt control of desirable women, the former by surrounding himself with attractive female bodyguards and nurses, the latter two with former models and beauty pageant queens. Some broadcast their sexual stamina. “I can love four women at the same time,” says Duterte; “If I sleep for three hours, I have the energy to make love for three hours after that,” claims Berlusconi.” Trump has been accused of sexual abuse by 18 or more women. Mussolini was ahead of Trump on the body count–he had his staff bring him five different women each week. Gaddafi kept a virtual harem of sex slaves and rape was rampant in his administration. Dominance over women by the strongman is not kept secret but promoted to enhance his image as powerful, in control, and manly. Berlusconi’s sexual escapades were not only well known, but a subject of his boasting.
Lawlessness is part of the very definition of authoritarian rule. Berlusconi lost his office but then returned to power with 10 legal cases pending against him. Trump’s criminal and civil legal cases against him dominated the news up to his re-election. When Mussolini was about to be tried for having a political opponent murdered, he escaped legal accountability by declaring himself the head of government. To insure immunity from prosecution he assumed total dictatorial powers, dared parliament to impeach him, fired the officials who investigated him, and pardoned anyone implicated in the crime.
To stay in power, the despotic ruler installs cronies, sycophants, and family members as the core of his rule. Pardons of powerful and corrupt individuals give demagogues a pool of intensely loyal staff and supporters. Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency was famous for cronyism and his alliances included organized crime figures. Officials appointed by the leader fear saying anything negative about the ruler or correcting any lies. This often results in upheaval and constant turnover of officials who can be fired and replaced over the radio, in the press, or by tweet. Gaddafi, Erdogan, Mobutu, Mussolini, and Trump all installed corrupt but loyal followers and often dismissed them without notice. Humiliating former and fallen loyalists is a favorite tactic of the all-powerful leader.
Most of all, the dictator gains and maintains power by the corruption of the truth. Putin uses censorship, shuts down offending press, or incarcerates or kills offending truth tellers. Trump has Truth Social and has elevated Elon Musk the owner of X. The most widely viewed news network, Fox News, is a Trump promoter. Berlusconi actually owned and controlled the major news sources in Italy. Hitler had Joseph Goebbels as chief propagandist. Much of the population under authoritarian rule either has no source of truth or is misled by lies. The lies feed on fears and offer an imagined future of safety, prosperity, and vengeance. Ben-Ghait’s book quotes Hannah Arendt: “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.”
From Pisistratus until today, enormous untruths and misinformation sustain the authoritarian. People freely choose to believe the lies.
It is going to be a long four years.
Two Strikes 