an extract from
STRONGMEN
How They Rise, Why They Succeed, How They Fall
RUTH BEN-GHIAT
'a truth that the autocrat goes to lengths to conceal: he is no one without his followers.
They are not merely the faces that cheer him at rallies, his corrupt coconspirators, and the persecutors of his enemies, but the force that anoints him as the chosen one and maintains him in power. In popular culture, the strongman’s brand of charisma is often depicted as a spellbinding force that makes people do his bidding. Yet theorist Max Weber made it clear a century ago that charisma, which he defined as the attribution of “supernatural, superhuman, or at least especially exceptional powers or qualities” to an “individual personality,” exists mostly in the eye of the beholder. Most strongmen have uncommon powers of persuasion.
Their followers and collaborators are the ones to “make” their reputations, though, by acknowledging their abilities. This makes the leader’s charismatic authority inherently unstable. His aura of specialness can dissipate if public opinion changes, leaving him without any legitimacy, unlike in dynastic and other forms of authority. That is why authoritarian states invest in leader cults and why they increase their use of censorship and repression if the leader’s hold on his people starts to disintegrate'