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Let’s Do Some Political Science, Shall We?
I Was Wrong: Trump is Not Mussolini or Hitler
The Trump administration is not an “autocracy,” but rather the pure venality of “patrimonialism”
You may not be familiar with the term “patrimonialism.” It is easy enough to explain. Think The Godfather. It is a form of government where the only thing that matters is loyalty to the leader, and the leader runs the government as though it were his family business, for his own enrichment and aggrandizement.
Pretty obvious, right? That summarizes the Trump administration. That also summarizes Putin, Orban, Erdogan, Bolsonaro, and many a monarch of old, back when monarchy was the most common form of government.
You might be thinking: “Well, isn’t it the same thing, though? Aren’t autocrats always patrimonialists?”
No, not necessarily. Two defining characteristics of patrimonialism are that it is a government with no real ideology and it is inherently incompetent (at least as far as the good of the people is concerned) by design.
Both Mussolini and Hitler had an underlying ideology they truly believed in. A patrimonialist does not have any real ideology; he believes in nothing other than his own bank account…
