A timely – and hopeful – analysis of the global erosion of democracy

POLITICS
Demagogues and Despots
John Keane
NewSouth. $32.99

Important political tomes published this year are reflecting Ozempic treatment. Walter Isaacson’s gift for America’s 250th birthday, his parsing of the first words of the Declaration of Independence, The Greatest Sentence Ever Written, weighs in at a slender70 pages, and is now joined by the wide-ranging analysis of the despotic wave that has swept over the planet, University of Sydney Professor John Keane’s Demagogues and Despots at a lean 137 pages. Less is more.

Four decades ago, we were convinced the world had entered the “end of history” era, heralded by Francis Fukuyama. The United States and its allies had won the first Gulf War to drive Iraq’s Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. The Berlin Wall fell. The Soviet Union collapsed. Democracy tore down the Iron Curtain. China entered the global trading order. Serbia’s ethnic cleansing was stopped.

The new dawn did not last very long. The terror unleashed in the September 11 attacks was blown back into forever wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Vladimir Putin consolidated and marshalled his power. (A senior aide to president Clinton told me following one of their meetings that Putin was “the scariest, most dangerous guy” he had ever encountered.) President Xi’s dictatorship arose after several more moderate predecessors faded away.

Barack Obama was elected president to redirect the course of the war on terror charted by President George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and to help ensure that, at home, the arc of history did indeed bend more towards justice. But the Obama years have since melted away.

Keane’s assessment of today’s demagogues and despots encompasses Russia, Iran, China, Hungary, Turkey, Cuba, Venezuela, Vietnam, Israel under Netanyahu and of course Trump in the US. Keane presents their structure as authoritarians and provides a clear understanding of the themes that enabled them to arise: the shared experience of powerlessness by people throughout society, corrupt governments, a hatred of immigrants, fewer people believing that democracies are working for them. Keane brings home the crucial point that despotism is not a foreign element; it operates inside democracies that are not working well for the people. The wielding of authoritarian power is seen by the supporters of the demagogues as exactly what they want their “democratic leaders” to do.

Demagogues want to be stars and cult figures. Attacking fake news is powerful tool. They relish ruling by decree. They lie and smear their enemies. In successive elections, despots get control over who can vote. Those in power exercise “wealth-based rule with an unquenchable thirst for endless material gain.” The Trump mafia works hard at this, with the net wealth of the family increasing by several billion dollars in less than 18 months in power.

What has occurred is highly visible. Trump’s atrocities are committed in broad daylight. He is more accessible to the media than any previous president. He blows back hostile questions from journalists and has the relevant government agencies poised to inflict penalties on media owners. America’s high-tech oligarchs now enjoy a condominium with the White House.

For Keane, there is nothing to debate here, nothing to fundamentally contest. Either you get it or you don’t. For those who don’t, this volume will be subversive and deserving of a good book burning.

For those who have already been grappling with what has become of America’s democracy – and Israel’s and those of Russia, Iran, Turkey, China, and Myanmar – the power of the no-nonsense clarity of Keane’s writing will harden the resolve of the urgency to get democracy back.

Keane’s realism is pessimism. But the publication of this book, in which he focuses extensively on Victor Orban’s ascendancy and rule of Hungary, has coincided with Orban’s overthrow by the voters. Despotism does not have to be permanent. In the US voters are poised to firmly rebuke Trump in November’s midterm elections and put a check on his power. So a new cycle of liberty and justice may yet emerge.

At the end of this volume, Keane writes that “democracy incubates hope” and that “people can indeed live more fairly,” and that this story is “to be continued.” Which is exactly what we need next.

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