The Naked King: New Authoritarianism, New Media and the Politics of the Obscene
A new breed of authoritarian leaders has arisen in recent years in the world’s liberal-democratic sphere. Their leadership is characterized by repeated violations of the unwritten rules of the political game. Donald Trump’s rise to power, which is an extreme expression of this trend, has left scholars and commentators without an explanation. The violation of norms and conventions, which would normally result in the immediate termination of a political career, turns out to be the secret behind the elusive power of this new breed of politicians, and in their hands it becomes a mechanism for mobilizing support and legitimation. More surprising than the breaking of the rules is the public manner in which they are broken. In this article I consider the relation between this new political power’s direct turn to the offensive and the silenced dimension of the socio-ethical rules, and I point out the relation between the ethical and political changes, on the one hand, and the trends and changes in the mass media, on the other.
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