![]() ![]() Following a migrant crisis that aroused fear and indignation in Eastern Europe, Hungary’s Viktor Orban has just won another term as Prime Minister while embracing “illiberal democracy”–a political system with free elections but scant regard for civil liberties. The character of strongman is also making a comeback in the heart of Europe. He has identified his own set of “deep state” enemies and has jailed an extraordinary number of journalists. A failed military coup in 2016 emboldened Erdogan to suspend the rule of law to target his opponents. Now he is manipulating Turkey’s political system to remain in control. In Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party, in power since 2003, have won a passionate following among socially conservative Turks by challenging the dominance of secular elites. That was never more obvious than when he ordered the detention late last year of at least 17 Saudi princes and some of the kingdom’s wealthiest and well-connected men. The man leading those is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is replacing elite consensus with a new level of control. In Saudi Arabia, the Arab Spring gave the royal family a look over the precipice, and a sharp drop in oil prices made clear that painful economic reforms could not be avoided. Like Putin, he won another landslide victory this spring over handpicked opponents. In Egypt, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, the general whose forces violently quashed protests over the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, was elected President the following year. Then there’s the Middle East, where some imagined that the Arab Spring might usher in democracy. ![]() The trend may yet be infectious a poll conducted by Vanderbilt University found that nearly 40% of Brazilians, exhausted by crime and corruption, would support a military coup in their country. In economically stricken Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro has detained opposition figures and violently stamped out protests. Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega has stifled dissent and scrapped term limits. In Latin America, the specter of the caudillo, or military leader, has made a comeback. Extreme political dysfunction in Thailand allowed the army to seize power in 2014 with little public resistance, and despite repeated promises to hold new elections, General Prayuth Chan-ocha remains in charge.
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