- 11 May 2022 12:43
#15226706
So I'm using the term Strongmanism, but the category clearly includes Marine Le Pen and arguably even Margaret Thatcher displayed moderate strongmanist tendencies. So in my book Putin is just a strong man, and not even a particularly nasty one, by the standards of strong men. The problem is he seems to have established a dictatorship and sits a top the worlds biggest pile of nuclear weapons. I feel with strong men its better if we can intervene or inhibit them earlier in the process. the same even goes for Hitler, I feel he only really became a problem when he established himself as uncontested dictator of Germany.
The West is clearly not free of strongmanism, this isn't just a problem of barbarous Russians, Chinese and Turks. Putin's war making methods actually seem quite restrained compared with what Trump has proposed. And Trump, quite possibly the next President of the united States was praising Putin two days before the invasion. Anyway I suggest a number of ways to combat Strongmanism.
1 No separately elected mayors, Governors or Presidents. The leader should be instantly recallable by the parliament / council representatives.
2 No primary elections for the leaders of parliamentary factions. The parliamentary faction leader should be chosen by the parliamentary representatives not by party membership. It was this that gave us Boris, who certainly displays moderate strong man tendencies.
3 Proportional representation. This inhibits the dominance of a single strong man in a number of ways.
4 Fixed term elections, on a fixed date with terms no longer than 2 years. If elections are relatively frequent there's no need to waste time and energy on special election campaigns.
Will this sometimes produce deadlock, politicly fragmentation confusion and even a bit of chaos? Yes but we should accept this as actually representing the will of the people, rather crying out for a strong man or strong woman to solve our problems at the first sign of difficulty.
The West is clearly not free of strongmanism, this isn't just a problem of barbarous Russians, Chinese and Turks. Putin's war making methods actually seem quite restrained compared with what Trump has proposed. And Trump, quite possibly the next President of the united States was praising Putin two days before the invasion. Anyway I suggest a number of ways to combat Strongmanism.
1 No separately elected mayors, Governors or Presidents. The leader should be instantly recallable by the parliament / council representatives.
2 No primary elections for the leaders of parliamentary factions. The parliamentary faction leader should be chosen by the parliamentary representatives not by party membership. It was this that gave us Boris, who certainly displays moderate strong man tendencies.
3 Proportional representation. This inhibits the dominance of a single strong man in a number of ways.
4 Fixed term elections, on a fixed date with terms no longer than 2 years. If elections are relatively frequent there's no need to waste time and energy on special election campaigns.
Will this sometimes produce deadlock, politicly fragmentation confusion and even a bit of chaos? Yes but we should accept this as actually representing the will of the people, rather crying out for a strong man or strong woman to solve our problems at the first sign of difficulty.
Progressives lie scattered on Woke's highway, Diverse ghosts crowd the young child's fragile eggshell mind.