Donald Trump and Jacob Zuma as charismatic buffoons

Abstract

ABSTRACT This analysis uses Walden Bello’s notion of charismatic politics to explain why ordinary people as voters have been complicit with the authoritarian politics of Donald Trump in the USA and Jacob Zuma in South Africa. In both cases, the authoritarian has displayed the capacity to connect with the masses by exploiting the yawning gap between popular aspirations and the messy realities of liberal democracy. Although, given the different contexts, they are different, the authoritarianisms of Trump and Zuma are not only charismatic, but share the quality of buffoonery, the capacity to attract popular support by acting out the charlatan and the fool. Yet the leader who combines charismatic authoritarianism with buffoonery is dangerous, presenting a threat to democracy which in the case of Trump is global and Zuma was local.