December 5, 2024, 6:02 am
Once he takes office in January, President-elect Donald Trump hopes to follow Vladimir Putin in building a system of strongman governance.
William Partlett’s new book Why the Russian Constitution Matters (2024, Bloomsbury Publishing), examines the constitutional details of this strongman project. It describes how today’s strongmen rely on a technique that Partlett calls the "constitutional dark arts". This is the argument that the constitutional centralisation of power in one leader is a better way to secure democracy, sovereignty and economic development than a system of democratic checks and balances.
This centralisation of power has allowed strongmen like Vladimir Putin in Russia, Viktor Orban in Hungary and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey to co-opt democratic institutions such as courts, political parties, legislatures and elections and use them to legitimise their own leadership.
But, over time, the constitutional dark arts does not achieve its stated goals. It instead leads to increasingly dysfunctional authoritarianism, poor economic growth, and national security.
In examining the constitutional dark arts, the talk will examine: How has Putin weaponised the centralisation of constitutional power to build his own personal power? What are the implications for Russia today and after Putin leaves office? How precisely will Trump attempt to build this strongman model in the United States and how can it be resisted?
Content Creator – Australian Institute of International Affairs
