Strongman: The Extraordinary Leaders of India and the Philippines

Arild Engelsen Ruud

Studies in Indian Politics, 2023, vol. 11, issue 1, 27-38

Abstract: Both Narendra Modi and Rodrigo Duterte stand out as leaders that epitomise their respective reigns in ways that previous leaders did not. A juxtaposition of their political personae allows us to investigate a contemporary political phenomenon, that of the elected strongman leader. This article makes three points from this juxtaposition: (a) They presided over a period of ‘democratic backsliding’. (b) They came with social media. (c) They are their own message and that message is that they are extraordinary leaders, above ordinary constraints. This article concludes that they represent strongman politics—where they as their people’s representative engage in acts symbolic of the people’s sovereignty. In an age of discontent with democracy, new and social media have allowed them to portray themselves as true defenders of ‘the people’.

Keywords: Indian democracy; Philippines; social media; strongman (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23210230231166184 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:indpol:v:11:y:2023:i:1:p:27-38

DOI: 10.1177/23210230231166184

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Studies in Indian Politics
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().