Articulations of StrongMen: A Knowledge Cultural Sociology of Recognizing Autocratic Practices in Russian, Turkish, and Global Regimes

Abstract

Autocracies and their practices have figured prominently in modernity’s making and associated sociologies, but in the 21st century the discourse of StrongMen has surged, coming to dominate our “attention economy.” We consider its various expressions alongside its articulations referencing multiple spaces and consider it a “floating signifier” that appears to explain but in fact distracts from deeper causalities and possible effects of autocratic governance. In this knowledge cultural sociology, we explore how the concept of StrongMen works within nations, with antipodes, and in networks across global and historical conjunctures. We focus in the end on Erdoğan’s 2023 re-election and Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, identifying not only the practices that make them StrongMen, but also how the very concept becomes part of the toolkit implicated in recognizing their autocratic practices.