The death of political authority

Are we living in the age of the strongman – or the weak man? Politics in the 21st century has so far been defined by a global drift away from liberalism, whatever that was, and towards authoritarianism – Xi in China, Putin in Russia, Erdogan in Turkey, Modi in India, Orban in Hungary, Bolsonaro in Brazil and that delightful Mr Duterte in the Philippines. In the 2020s, however, in our supposedly more advanced democracies, the political leitmotif has been one of feeble and failing leadership.

Look around the world. Boris Johnson is often accused of being a wannabe dictator – an egomaniac desperate to achieve his childhood ‘world king’ fantasy. That doesn’t seem to be going very well. Last week, he begged his party not to ‘dance to the tune of the media’ and to support him in a confidence vote. Forty-one per cent of Tory MPs ignored the plea. Like Theresa May before him, Johnson survived the vote – but the widespread perception now is that his leadership is on borrowed time. To keep his premiership alive, a Prime Minister with an 80-seat majority must now pander to Conservative factions he had previously taken for granted. The great rule-breaker of British politics has been brought to heel – principally because he broke those petty lockdown rules he introduced for lesser mortals. What sort of world king can’t illegally eat cake?

In America, Joe Biden’s authority is a wreck. This week, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the feline star of the Democratic party’s progressive wing, smirked on CNN as she refused to confirm that she would support the President in the 2024 election.

It’s easy to see why she’s reluctant. Biden’s poll numbers keep worsening: he currently has a job approval score of 39 per cent (at the same stage of his presidency, Donald Trump had 44 per cent).