At the heart of this discussion: why do people vote for authoritarian leaders like Trump or Modi or Zuma, and how do we explain this bizarre phenomenon from a Jungian point of perspective?
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of authoritarian governments across the world in the last 10 years; Russia, China, India, Turkey, Hungary, Philippines, to name the most prominent. The Arab Spring of 2010 has become the Arab Winter of 2014. Donald Trump has all the attributes of an authoritarian but is limited in his actions by the American constitutional framework. South Africa has itself just come out of a decade of such anti-democratic rule. More distressing has been the degree to which these governments and these leaders have been supported by voters. And this is the heart of this discussion: why do people vote for Trump or Modi or Zuma, and how do we explain this bizarre phenomenon from a Jungian point of view? Jung himself gives us a start with his discussion, of Germany in 1936, and of the personal impact of Hitler. I suggest there are two versions of the Joker/Trickster archetype at play here, one fighting for democracy and justice often following anarchist principles, the other full of rage, just wanting to burn things down. Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party (BJP) in India is a case of the latter, furious anger spilling over into mob mayhem every now and again.