Strongman (politics)

A strongman is a type of authoritarian political leader. Political scientists Brian Lai and Dan Slater identify strongman rule as a form of authoritarian rule characterized by autocratic military dictatorships, as distinct from three other categories of authoritarian rule, specifically machine (oligarchic party dictatorships); bossism (autocratic party dictatorships), and juntas (oligarchic military dictatorships).[1]

A 2014 study published in the Annual Review of Political Science journal found that strongmen and juntas are both more likely to engage in human rights violations and civil wars than civilian dictatorships.[2] However, military strongmen are more belligerent than military regimes or civilian dictatorships—i.e., they are more likely to initiate interstate armed conflict.[2] It is theorized that this is because strongmen have greater reason to fear assassination, imprisonment, or exile after being removed from power.[2] The rule of military strongmen is more likely to end through an insurgency, popular uprising, or invasion; by contrast, the rule of military regimes and civilian dictatorships are more likely to end in democratization.[2]

Authoritarian leaders classified by political scientists as strongmen include Juan Domingo Perón (Argentina), Mao Zedong (People's Republic of China), Chiang Kai-shek (Republic of China), Fidel Castro (Cuba), Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt), Ioannis Metaxas (Greece), Ayub Khan (Pakistan), Siad Barre (Somalia), Salah Jadid (Syria), Hafez al-Assad (Syria), and Idi Amin (Uganda),[3] as well as Hun Sen (Cambodia),[4] Suharto (Indonesia),[5] and both Omar Torrijos[6] and Manuel Noriega of Panama.[7]