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Strongmen thrive in chaos, using it to both gain and maintain power.
Times of social, economic, and cultural unrest provide the ideal opportunity for strongmen to seize power and can be used to further tighten their grip on power once in office. Strongmen are able to take advantage of public discontent and fears, especially in times of progressive change, in order to advocate for return to tradition and the perceived stability of the past. These times of crisis also allow strongmen to unite their supporters under the banner of perceived victimization (whether it be by minorities or foreign powers) and to confront common enemies both within and without the regime. Crisis can also be used to justify extreme, authoritarian measures in the name of national security and the common good, allowing strongmen to wield power more freely than in times of tranquility.
Strongmen share common patterns and tactics across time.
According to Ben-Ghiat, each authoritarian ruler has relied on and contributed to the same “playbook” over time, that they learn from each other. These include corruption, propaganda, violence, and virility.
These lessons taken from each other may happen across history or simultaneously, as many strongmen have been friends with or admired contemporary authoritarian leaders (for example, the friendship between Berlusconi and Putin, or Hitler’s admiration for Mussolini). Their rises to power always occur in times of crisis, and their falls from power are usually in times of equal crisis and social change, usually as a result of their own corruption. During their rule, in particular, strongmen share the same tactics to maintain their power. Corruption, often financial, allows them to handsomely reward both their allies and themselves as well as incentivize further cooperation. Propaganda helps to conceal the atrocities they commit and further their own cult of personality; virility also helps to serve the latter, all while promoting an idealized patriarchal culture. Violence is used to control dissenters, often framed as a patriotic act in the service of national security.
Strongmen depend on their reputation and popularity to survive.
Strongmen rise and fall by their public perception. They can only gain power through enough public approval (even if fraudulently acquired, in some cases, such as through illegitimate elections), maintain that power through public approval, and see their downfall when they lose that approval. Several strongmen have lost public approval on their way out of office, or have been deposed by that very same loss, such as Mussolini, who was removed by his own party’s counsel; Pinochet, who was voted out in 1988; or Gaddafi, who was executed by his citizens during the 2011 Libyan Civil War. This loss of approval is typically seen as a betrayal by the strongman, who often imagines himself a savior to the people and views their rejection of him as based in weakness or unworthiness.
