When democratic governments fail to serve their people, voters recognize that something is wrong. Democracy is the best system ever devised for peacefully removing ineffective leaders from power, but some bad leaders, whom I call “petty tyrants,” can undermine the democracy itself.
Petty tyrants are more focused on personal victories than on national priorities. The good news is that they carry within them the seeds of their own destruction. Once we understand their common flaws, it becomes apparent why they eventually fall rapidly from power and leave few changes to government that last. Understanding this pattern can help us recognize a critical feature that distinguishes leaders who damage their nations from those who create lasting good: their relationship to truth.
I’ll begin with three petty tyrants from the 19th and 20th centuries, each of whom fell precipitously from power, discredited and despised — followed by three more honest leaders who handled similar challenges very differently. The pattern predates these examples, and it continues today.
The Emperor of Appearances
Louis Napoleon, later known as Napoleon III, should not be confused with his uncle Napoleon Bonaparte, the military genius, although he tried to link himself to Bonaparte in people’s minds. The self-comparison led French writer and political figure Victor Hugo to coin a nickname for Napoleon that was fitting for both his stature and temperament: Napoleon the Small.
When Napoleon first ran for election, the nation was suffering from a banking crisis, poor harvests and mass unemployment. The previous regime was an elite oligarchy that was ineffective and out of touch with the working class. Napoleon campaigned on general promises of law and order, jobs for workers, no new taxes and nationalistic pride. His vague promises appealed to a coalition of peasants, conservatives and those nostalgic for past French glories. He won by a landslide.
Napoleon was inaugurated as the first president of the French Second Republic in 1848. The constitution limited his presidency to a single four-year term, but he decided that a mere law should not limit his destiny. In the early hours of Dec. 2, 1851, his troops surrounded the National Assembly and arrested the deputies. The following year, he proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III.
The date of his coronation, again Dec. 2, was a calculated connection to past glories: It was the anniversary of both his uncle’s coronation and his decisive victory at the Battle of Austerlitz. He presented his coup as the renewal of France’s imperial destiny. In a referendum that gave him an overwhelming mandate to draw up a new constitution, many voted not for Napoleon personally, but for the renewal of French greatness.