Nayib Bukele, the “World’s Coolest Dictator”?

Abstract Chapter 9 examines the case of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele (2019-), the last Latin American president who managed to relax his term limits in 2021. In Chapter 4, I proposed that dominant and politically inexperienced presidents are more likely to attempt this power grab. I argued that dominant presidents are better equipped to persevere in their power grab attempts due to their capacity to endure opposition, persuasiveness, and strong inclination to control their context. They are also highly motivated to retain office because they want to surpass predecessors. Politically inexperienced presidents tend to overestimate what they can achieve in office due to a shallow understanding of governmental procedures and practices. They often lack the respect for democratic norms that comes with experience as a professional politician and are unaccustomed to electoral and policy defeats. Moreover, inexperienced leaders are likely to underestimate the backlash their actions may trigger. Bukele is clearly a dominant yet politically inexperienced leader, and these characteristics have enabled him to transform El Salvador’s fragile semi-democracy into an authoritarian state.