Why Trump?

The choice of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States is another clear example of how the deterioration of liberal democracies enlightens the way for the emergence of authoritarian leaders.

EDITORIAL

The arrival of the XXI century appears to have accelerated the visible loss of quality in the political class, a phenomenon that is spreading like a pandemic, sickening more and more countries. On top of this are the changes that technology and globalization have produced in production methods and forms of communication, generating employment instability while facilitating protest, expressions of nonconformity, and stimulating demand for rights.

An analysis by Kevin Casas on the emergence of authoritarian leaders around the world confirms that the phenomenon is not temporary or specific to certain societies, but liberal democracy itself seems to contain these malignant cells which, when the social body is weakened by increasing corruption and inability on the part of rulers, becomes a cancer that threatens to kill the best form of lifestyle that humans have ever found.

Casas says: "That Donald Trump is a symptom of the brokenness of democracy in America is evident. It is also obvious that his electoral success is part of a broader phenomenon of contempt for political elites and the conventions of liberal democracy, which vividly manifested itself in Brexit, in the monstrous rhetoric of Rodrigo Duterte, the consolidation of illiberal governments in Hungary and Poland, and perhaps in the unexpected result of the Colombian plebiscite, to cite some of many recent examples."