Authoritarianism, a form of government characterized by absolute rule by a central authority, such as a dictator is on the rise around the world.
Recently China shocked many observers by proposing a constitutional amendment to end the two-term limit for presidents, giving its President, Xi Jinping a clear path to rule the world's second-largest economy for life.
In addition to China, Vladimir Putin rules absolutely in Russia, and nations such as Egypt, Turkey, Hungary, and Poland have shed any democratic pretense. Of course, well-known rogue states such as Iran and North Korea are ruled by a religious oligarchy and a hereditary madman respectively.
At present, the authoritarianism business is booming. According to the Human Rights Foundation’s research, the citizens of 94 countries suffer under non-democratic regimes, meaning that 3.97 billion people are currently controlled by tyrants, absolute monarchs, military juntas or competitive authoritarians. That’s 53 percent of the world’s population. Statistically, then, authoritarianism is one of the largest — if not the largest — challenges facing humanity.
The Global Times, a Chinese nationalist newspaper defended the communist party decision to retain its President for life, stating, “some key parts of the Western value system are collapsing. Democracy, which has been explored and practiced by Western societies for hundreds of years, is ulcerating," it said.
Ignore domestic whining that Donald Trump’s election will lead to authoritarianism; such rhetoric is liberal bomb-throwing. He was elected legitimately.
If you’re upset he didn’t win the popular vote, then amend the Constitution. That’s the system we have. It’s the anti-Trump crowd that resorted to un-democratic tactics such as attempting to persuade Trump electors to change their votes and charging Russian collusion.
President Trump’s opponents who today relish the image of the United States as a brutal, misogynist, racist force in the world may look back in the not too distant future and wish for the “good times” of the past when once-powerful America was the world’s lone superpower and when it protected Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Seas, and Freedom of the Airways.
I’ve often wondered how the “oppressed” in this country with their free speech, community activists, and sympathetic court system would fare in a repressive, absolutist state. Activists are sent to gulags never to return.
The rise of the populist Trump, Brexit in Britain, and anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe represent anti-globalism.
That is not only very different from authoritarianism; it’s the opposite. It is more democratic, an uprising of the people against elites in government who favor their globalist vision over the will of the people.
Why should you care about all this?
The idea that democracies don’t go to war with each other has become universally accepted. Because authoritarian rulers do not have to get or keep their citizens’ approval to go to war, they are much more dangerous and provocative than democratic politicians.
Meanwhile, dictators are always at war, often with a foreign power and always with their own people. If you are worried about public health, poverty or peace, your mandate is clear: Encourage the U.S. to remain a strong, active force against tyranny and oppression.
