‘Poor man wanna be rich

Rich man wanna be King

And a King ain’t satisfied

‘till he rules everything.”

While these lyrics from Bruce Springsteen’s 1978 hit “Badlands” were not penned as an overt political statement, they resonate loudly today with the growing number of entrenched autocrats across the globe.

From the shores of the Mediterranean to Central Europe, from East Asia to the Eurasian landmass, and closer to home on Pennsylvania Avenue, wannabe sultans, emperors, tsars, and kings trample the vestiges of democracy in order to feed their addiction to power.

Take Turkey, for example, where the regime of longtime ruler Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently arrested Ekrem Imamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul and the opposition candidate favored to unseat (I want to be) Sultan Erdogan the Magnificent in the next presidential election, scheduled for 2028. The detention, based on trumped-up charges, has caused a wave of protests across the strategically important country, highlighting Erdogan’s waning popularity after more than 20 years in power. His naked ambition to use all means available to maintain his party’s governing role has called into question the legitimacy of the country’s democracy.

Meanwhile, in Central Europe, Hungary’s irascible leader, Viktor Orban, continues to demonize the growing opposition to his illiberal rule with rhetoric more suited to a banana republic than a member state of the European Union. In a speech in mid-March commemorating a Hungarian national holiday, Orban referred to his opponents as “vermin” and “insects that need to be cleaned out of the country.” The cantankerous prime minister is turning up the heat now as one of his former supporters, Peter Magyar, is currently the leading opposition figure, potentially threatening Orban’s 2026 reelection prospects.

Chinese President Xi Jingping is a proud member of the autocrat fraternity, as well, having secured an historic third term in 2023 as leader of the Middle Kingdom. As a prerequisite to his leadership-for-life plan, Xi masterminded an update to the Chinese constitution to legally backstop his continued rule. The ploy of forcing changes to long-accepted legal norms to facilitate the extension of an “indispensable” ruler is a tried and true practice of the non-democratic cabal.

Erdogan, Orban, and Xi are relative novices in the autocracy game, however, compared to Russia’s Tsar Vladimir (I want to be) the Great. Putin’s preferred methods for sidelining nettlesome opposition figures are more drastic, and enduring. Whether the victims of gangland shootings (Anna Politkovskaya, Boris Nemtsov), suffering the effects of polonium-210 (Aleksandr Litvinenko) or boarding the wrong aircraft (Yevgeny Prigozhin), those deemed a threat to Putin tend to meet untimely ends.

In addition to the aforementioned brutality, Putin has administratively and constitutionally guaranteed his United Russia party’s success at the ballot box in the country’s regular sham elections. The Kremlin boss, early in the 2000s, got around pesky Russian restrictions on presidential term limits by simply serving as prime minister for four years, calling all the shots for his obeisant president, Dmitry Medvedev. After returning to the presidency in 2012, Putin pressed for a rewrite of the Russian constitution which allows him to remain in power until 2036.

Putin’s stranglehold on power is the gold standard for would-be autocrats the world over, garnering praise and attempts at imitation. The Russian example has not gone unnoticed in Washington, as President Donald Trump is now openly making comments about staying in power for another term. Notwithstanding the fact that the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. constitution is explicit in the two-term restriction for the White House occupant, Trump seems to think that the putative support of some of his faithful for a third term outweighs this country’s fundamental legal document. One can be certain that George Washington is writhing in his grave at the president’s narcissistic disdain for traditional norms.

While the leaders described above come from varied backgrounds and disparate nationalities, they all share a common trait. They seem to truly believe that they, and they alone, possess the necessary skills to lead their respective countries.

History will undoubtedly show that they were sadly mistaken in that belief.

Robert Beck of Peterborough is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. After serving for 30 years in U.S embassies in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, he now teaches foreign policy classes at lifelong learning programs at both Keene State College and Rivier University.