Modern Democracy Has Plenty of Trump Precedents

In the wake of Donald Trump’s stunning electoral victory, many American political analysts are arguing that his presidency has virtually no precedent in U.S. history, and so it’s impossible to know how he might govern.

However, Trump isn’t without precedent in modern democracy if you look for examples outside America. To be sure, some of his populist mantras echo those of the increasingly powerful European hard-right parties. But most of the hard-right parties in Europe haven’t yet won control of a government. Instead, it’s better to study the slew of elected autocracies that have taken over developing nations during the past decade—and touched richer countries such as Italy, Hungary, and Poland. According to the monitoring group Freedom House, democracy has been on the decline worldwide since the late 2000s, with the rise of elected autocrats—legitimately elected leaders who then undermine democratic institutions and culture—a major reason for freedom’s ebb. These elected autocrats include people on the left of the spectrum, such as former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, as well as right-leaning leaders such as former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who dominates Poland’s current ruling Law and Justice Party.