We are living in times where political strongmen are emerging globally. Think of Donald Trump in the West and Rodrigo Duterte in the East. For a strongman’s promises of national pride and a better life, the people are willing to compromise democracy and human rights. What does this mean for women as well as other marginalized groups?
The Political Strongman
Political strongman is a topic that had gained media attention in recent years, particularly with the publication of Gideon Rachman’s book, The Age of the Strongman, in 2018. Not surprisingly, the democratic decline and rising authoritarianism of the last 30 years (Freedom House, 2021 in Morgan 2021) has been marked by the rise of political strongmen.
Political strongmen typically garner their followers through the notions of national identity and their campaign to improve economic conditions. It is common for strongmen to gain support using personal appeal rather than by offering a feasible program. Strongmen tend to have a populist appeal and position themselves as protectors of groups with a certain faith, ethnicity, or class.
In many countries, the lower-middle class has grown dissatisfied with the economic marginalization they continue to suffer, viewing that democratic leaders have shown lack of competence to address these issues. Ethnic, religious, and class divides are the cause of this discontent, so strongman leaders try to gain support by using identity politics and the claim that they can close the gap in inequalities, particularly in favor of a specific group.
Aside from former heads of
state such as Trump, Duterte, and Jair Bolsonaro, current leaders who are
labeled as political strongmen include Viktor Orbán, Benjamin Netanyahu, Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan, Vladmir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Narendra Modi, not to mention
the dozen heads of state with over ten years of leadership in Africa. Adding to
the list of strongmen political leaders is Indonesia’s prospective new
president, Prabowo Subianto.
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| A mural of Netanyahu and Trump (globalnews.ca). |
Some of these leaders, such as Erdoğan, Putin, and Jinping embrace a nationalism that is hostile to Western democracy and liberalism, but all political strongmen commonly erode democracy by cooptation of institutions, some form of media control, and continued suppression of marginalized groups and oppositions.
In an authoritarian setting, modern political strongmen use strategies similar to previous fascist strongmen of the Second World War era. For instance, media censorship, state control of the media, and media propaganda are among the common practices.
In a democracy, strongmen may portray themselves as democratic leaders while compromising democratic values and rule of law, and exercising suppression. Laws and violence are further utilized to crush political opponents or sideline oppositions and prevent new leadership. They frequently use media tactics to consolidate political power to manipulate public opinion by shaping certain narratives, and omitting others, to fit the governments’ purpose.
"Laws and violence are further utilized to crush political opponents or sideline oppositions and prevent new leadership.
Therefore, strongmen leadership—in a more or lesser degree—is characterized by disinformation and the undermining or limited freedom of the press. Moreover, many strongman leaders have exercised the monitoring of citizens’ movement, flawed democratic elections, and suppression of women’s rights and marginalization of ethnic/religious and sexual minorities.
What Does It Mean for Women?
Nationalists and conservative cultural values that strongmen identify with are typically anti-LGBTQ and lack support for gender equality. The personality embodied by the strongman cult often presents them as the father of the nation, justifying masculine traits as successful leadership. This perspective is translated into government policies and rhetoric that marginalize women and ethnic/religious and sexual minority groups.
This is why women have been the target of strongmen policy changes. Women have also been the target of sexist statements by strongman leaders, from women’s roles in the family and nation to explicit degradation of women’s body, while women activists have been the target of arrests.
Strongmen leaders commonly opt for the strengthening of women’s traditional role. For example, Bolsonaro abolished Brazil's human rights ministry and replaced it with a new ministry for women, family, human rights, and indigenous affairs when he took office, a ministry which views that women are born to be mothers and does not see the need for reducing gender inequality.
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| Jokowi and Putin share a joke (keuangannews.id). |
Women’s activism is seen as defiance. Women human rights defenders have been the target of arrests and criminalization. Xi Jinping’s Chinese Communist Party authorities have arrested women human rights defenders and shut down independent women’s organizations. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, many prominent women human rights defenders, were at risk of attack and extrajudicial killing. Duterte was also quoted to have said that the government will shoot the vagina of female guerrillas, stating that women would be “useless” without their vaginas.
Strongmen policies have curtailed women’s reproductive rights. The Trump administration had cut international funding for UNFA which provides family planning and reproductive service to hundreds of countries around the world. The goal of maintaining ethnic purity has also breached women’s reproductive rights as immigrant women are expected to have less children. Such as the case in Hungary where Orbán urges native-born women to have more children, exempting income tax for women who have four or more children and declaring, “We want Hungarian children. Migration for us is surrender.”
"Strongmen policies have curtailed women’s reproductive rights.
Not surprisingly, in 2019, following these policies and statements, female world leaders launched a counteract against strongman leaderships. On February 28th, 2019, the Guardian reported that “More than 30 female world leaders have called for a fightback against the erosion of women’s rights, with one former minister singling out countries led by ‘a macho-type strongman’ as part of the problem.”
Even though leaders labeled strongmen tend to be men, strongman type of leadership is not unique to male leaders. Throughout history there have been a few female leaders labeled as strongman or strongwoman. These include long reining prime ministers such as Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, and Sheikh Hasina. The latter is the longest serving prime minister in the history of Bangladesh. Named one of the most powerful women by Forbes in 2022, her reign has been riddled with enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, as well as restriction of freedom of the media.
Indonesia’s New Leader
Adding to the list of strongmen political leaders emerging these past few years is Indonesia’s prospective new president, Prabowo Subianto. Subianto, a former general of Indonesia’s past authoritarian regime, has a disreputable past of human rights abuses leading to his discharge and exile in the late ‘90s, and subsequent ban in entering the US, which was lifted in 2019.
After two decades of reform in Indonesia, current president, Joko Widodo (Jokowi) who was once hailed as the spearhead of Indonesia’s democratic reform appears to have evolved into a strongman. Jokowi subsequently issued defamation laws and attempts to secure his rule by using his son (Gibran Rakabuming Raka) as an extension of his power through his son’s vice-presidential candidacy. Alongside his son, Jokowi is supporting the military strongman of the previous authoritarian regime and ex-foe, Subianto, as presidential candidate.
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| Prabowo and Gibran's cartoon image used in their campaign (cnnidonesia.com). |
Media spin tactics are of course used to transform Subianto’s image. Once a feared general, now he sells himself as the loveable grandpa of the young generation. While leaving behind previous support by Islamist groups, Subianto displays himself as a democratic figure, alongside using various media campaigns to attract the younger population. During the presidential election campaign, anything related to women mentioned by Subianto was mainly in the context of health, such as improving nutrition for pregnant women. This shows his lack of perspective and knowledge of strategies for long-term empowerment of women.
Scholars have said that true political reform had never took place in Indonesia, there was only a new head of state surrounded by the same circle of oligarchs which plagued the previous government. So, when Jokowi appointed the former regime’s notorious general, Subianto—who was twice his opponent in the two previous presidential elections—as minister for defense in 2019, most should have grasped the narrative behind this reconciliation.
Most might want to believe that the postreform era of Indonesia has no room for such old players with a dishonorable past. In reality, the power of coalition manifests itself in less mysterious ways, but we perceive it as something of a plot twist, while it was actually quite predictable.
Strongmen are Here to Stay
It appears that widespread economic insecurity and the ongoing crisis of democracy in various parts of the world will provide a landscape for strongmen leaders to maintain their hold over the people and the opportunity for new ones to emerge. The strongman cult will continue to spread. The rise of populism and decline of multiculturalism under strongman leaderships will further cause the erosion of women’s rights.
Check out my other blog for essays on gender, history, and culture.
Top Image: via Pinterest
Sources
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Lyons, Kate (2019) 'Rise of the 'strongman': Dozens of female world leaders warn women's rights being eroded.' The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/28/rise-of-the-strongman-dozens-of-female-world-leaders-warn-womens-rights-being-eroded [17 March 2024].
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Utama, Virdika Rizky (2023) 'Prabowo Subianto: Indonesia’s perennial strongman recast as the adorable grandpa.' Indonesia at Melbourne. https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/prabowo-subianto-indonesias-perennial-strongman-recast-as-the-adorable-grandpa/ [25 February 2024].
Walker, Tony (2018) 'Why the world should be worried about the rise of strongman politics.' The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/why-the-world-should-be-worried-about-the-rise-of-strongman-politics-100165 [17 February 2024].
West, John (2022) 'The Age of The Strongman: How the Cult of the Leader Threatens Democracy Around the World.' Asian Century Institute. https://asiancenturyinstitute.com/politics/1739-the-age-of-the-strongman-how-the-cult-of-the-leader-threatens-democracy-around-the-world [19 February 2024].
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