The Strongman Politics Pattern
In this essay, I'm going to outline what I claim are two main reasons voters in true democracies choose to elect authoritarian strongman, and why each of those arguments are misguided.
The Simple Solution Hypothesis
The Strongman proposes that there is a simple solution to all the maladies that the citizenry has been suffering. The reason no one has solved these problems is because they -- the other party, the other politicians, the others -- don't want to do it. However, only if he had the chance, he could make everything right for the citizenry and for the country.
The Good Authoritarian Hypothesis
The Strongman also claims that the political system is broken and untrustworthy, but he has the answer. If only he had more freedom and latitude to do as he see fit, without regard to political correctness and political compromises, he could serve the population's interests and make everything right.
The Simple Solution Delusion
We'd all like there was a simple solution to everything. At some point in your life, you've probably asked yourself “why don't they just print more money and give it to the poor?”. This would be a simple solution, right?
The -- in my opinion -- unsatisfying answer is that “inflation would soar” and “inflation is well-understood to be bad”.
The more complete answer is that money is only a representation of value, but not value itself. True economic value is what people get from, for example, having access to housing and food.
One can't simply multiply the amount of houses built and food available by printing more money. Therefore, a money-printing solution -- without addressing the supply of housing and production of food -- can't work.
The reality is that the economy is an incredibly complex system of trade offs, compromise and moving pieces. No single person can ignore such complexity, dictate how things ought to be without throwing the whole system into disarray and making things worse than they started.
Recognizing that yes, things are complicated and that no, there are no simple in-reach solutions, is the only intellectually honest starting point for a dialogue that seeks solutions that really address the problems that afflict society.
The Good Authoritarian Delusion
If someone is open to the idea that centralized authoritative power can serve any of their individual interests, one haven't been paying attention.
The only reason that strongmen have to jump through so many hoops and appeal to the needs of the public is because the citizenry -- under a democratic regime -- holds the power. The democratic vote is the tool to decide who legitimately can govern them for the next years.
Even with all of its shortcomings, if one is unhappy that politicians only care about the public every so many years to be re-elected, rest assured, no better model has been yet found to make the people in roles of power to care at all about pleasing the public.
There is no short supply of authoritarian regimes in history and in present day to draw conclusions and observation from.
In reality, authoritarianism must be the first and most natural form of government. Throughout history, it has never failed to do one thing: promote and perpetuate the concentration of power and riches while impoverishing the population.
Democracy, in turn, was created and designed to address the precise shortcomings we must recognize that every human is subjected to: self-interest.
Democracy has built in its core the values of transparency and accountability -- through the universal rule of the law -- and division of power -- more obviously between the political branches, but even more importantly between the government and its citizenry.
No better practical governing system has been devised yet. In truth, it's something close to a miracle that so many countries were able to transition out of authoritarianism and toward Democracy at all.