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Chapter 1: Fascist Takeovers
Part I devotes one chapter to each of the three strongman eras. The first chapter describes how Benito Mussolini of Italy, Adolf Hitler of Germany, and Francisco Franco of Spain were able to seize power in their respective countries. First, Ben-Ghiat paints a picture of Mussolini, characterizing him as violent and opportunistic, yet charismatic, from a young age. Rising to prominence through his participation in the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), Mussolini found his ideological footing after starting the fascist newspaper Il Popolo d’Italia. For him, Fascism was an attractive proposition, as it combined the concepts of nationalism and socialism into one idea, and framed revolution as a tool to suppress change, not to further it. Italy, in Mussolini’s opinion, had been unsettled by World War I and slighted by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. It needed and deserved a return to stability and tradition.
This mentality of victimhood is a common theme among strongmen, and one of the ways in which they use crises to gain power. By maintaining that their nation has been a victim of some international unfairness, they can promise to show the way to justice and recompense. With the blessing of the United States ambassador and a loan of 100 million dollars from the United States government backing him, Mussolini was able to enact a violent takeover of Italy and become dictator within three years of being named prime minister.
Hitler followed a similar path, rising to prominence through his small following in the National Socialist German Workers’ Party before being named chancellor by conservative elites during an economic crisis. The discontented public was swayed by his insistence on Germany’s victimhood at the hands of Jews, Marxists, and the foreign powers that had treated Germany so poorly as a consequence of World War I. With broad popular support, Hitler was able to declare himself Führer and take absolute power within two months of becoming chancellor, using the Reichstag Fire of 1933 as a pretext for declaring a national crisis. Franco, too, took advantage of a crisis to secure his position in government. He took the opportunity presented by the Spanish Civil War, which began in 1936, to accept aid from Mussolini and Hitler and used Spain’s Morocco-based Army of Africa to crush leftist opposition within Spain. Franco was politically far more flexible than either Mussolini or Hitler, and because of that was able to stay in power far longer.
Chapter 2: Military Coups
Chapter 2 describes the rise to power of Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, and Augusto Pinochet of Chile. Mobutu was able to seize power during the rapid decolonization of Africa following World War II. Anti-imperialist sentiments could be used to fuel revolution and coups, after which dictators would enact policies that mirrored those of the ousted foreign rulers.
Coups have historically been one of the most common paths to authoritarian rule as well as to its end and are often justified in the name of the people. There is no better example of this than the 1969 coup that brought Gaddafi to power. At first a relative unknown, he stoked hatred of imperialist Italy and Libya’s American- and British-backed King Idris. Gaddafi’s coup was abrupt and surprising, and ended with him becoming the sole controlling power in the government, as both the commander of Libya’s army and the chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC). He tried to win the people of Libya over by using Libyan oil money to fund public programs for education and housing. Pinochet, unlike Gaddafi, willingly allied himself with colonial powers. He led a coup backed by the United States in the name of deposing the current Socialist President, Salvador Allende. With the power of the junta, a military leadership committee, backing him, Pinochet was able to violently attack leftists and other opposition groups, further consolidating his power as time went on.
Chapter 3: New Authoritarian Ascents
Chapter 3 focuses on a new era of strongmen who, while still believing that they were personally destined to save their nations, used elections to gain and maintain power. This method was far less bloody and also far more secure, as it was much easier to hide instances of voter suppression and fraud than to hide victims of revolutionary violence. It was also easier to blame illegal behavior on associates and employees, rather than on the leaders themselves.
According to Ben-Ghiat, Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Donald J. Trump of the United States are all examples of this type of strongman. Berlusconi used both crises and propaganda to his advantage, getting elected at a time when Italians feared the repercussions of the fall of Communism across Europe and right-wing anti-immigrant sentiments that were rising due to ethnic conflicts in Eastern Europe. As the owner of a large chunk of Italian media, including television and newspapers, Berlusconi had the power to influence public opinion, not only to secure the presidency for himself, but also to escape prosecution for alleged financial crimes, convincing the public that the judiciary and other democratic institutions were their enemies, not their friends.
Berlusconi was not the only one who took advantage of the fall of the Soviet Union, as the ensuing Chechnya conflict allowed Putin to go from an unknown presidential candidate to a seemingly strong and competent leader. He was able to win 53 percent of the vote in the upcoming elections, most likely through fraud, and even at the beginning of his rule was already described by same as a Russian version of Pinochet. Some Russians welcomed him on precisely those terms, believing that they needed a strong government to protect national interests. Trump, similarly, was able to take advantage of divided opinion in the United States, following Barack Obama’s presidency and the racist, anti-immigrant sentiments stirred up during those years. Promising a return to “America First” policies, Trump surrounded himself with aides who had purportedly supported far-right authoritarian leaders in the past.
