Global politics is experiencing a paradigm shift. Society has become more horizontal by breaking away from traditional structures and reshaping the way voters interact with power. For several decades now, people have been waging—without even realizing it—a war against authority. This is not an explicit confrontation with a monarch, the police, or the military. Rather, it is “authorities” in a general sense that no longer hold the unquestionable role of directing society, dictating how, when, or where people should act or refrain from acting. The principle of authority is in crisis, and for political leadership to survive in this new scenario, it must undergo transformation.
This shift can be seen in religion, with the decline of once-massive expressions of faith and the rise of new, decentralized religions (or those without a single authority). As philosopher Charles Taylor explains in A Secular Age, people have not stopped believing; instead, they have begun to question the authority and teachings that were once unquestionable. He describes what he calls a “spiritual supernova,” an explosion in which people seek new belief alternatives and ways to practice their faith.
As a result, in recent decades, more believers have gravitated toward different evangelical movements, adopted syncretic beliefs that combine elements of various religious traditions, or even identified as “spiritual but not religious.” This reflects a fragmentation and diversification of the contemporary religious landscape. According to studies by Latinobarómetro, Catholicism in the region has declined by nearly 30 percentage points between 1995 and 2024, while the number of evangelicals has tripled over the same period.
In politics, parties are no longer authorities for voters, nor do leaders own their votes. Political scientist Peter Mair analyzes this process in Ruling the Void, noting that party structures have become detached from voters, reducing themselves, in his view, to merely bureaucratic entities run by a political elite. As Mair states, the era of political parties has passed—politicians govern, but they do not represent.
In 2018, Andrés Manuel López Obrador reached Mexico’s National Palace with Morena (the National Regeneration Movement), a party he founded just seven years earlier, thus ending the historical dominance of the PRI and, to a lesser extent, the PAN in shaping electoral preferences in Mexico. In France, Emmanuel Macron created La République En Marche! in 2016 without a traditional party structure and won the French presidency in less than a year. His success demonstrated how established parties (socialists and republicans) had lost the ability to mobilize and retain voters.
A similar experience occurred with Mauricio Macri in Argentina, although his journey with PRO took nearly ten years and required forming a coalition with the century-old UCR party and the Civic Coalition. Refining this approach further, Javier Milei reached the presidency with a coalition of parties that had been created less than two years prior, without a real party institutional structure. Voters no longer vote for parties; leaders no longer own the votes.
In the economic sphere, authority is being challenged, and decentralized systems like those enabled by blockchain are being explored. Bitcoin was created in 2008 as a response to the global financial crisis, which exposed governments’ inability to stabilize economies and curb excessive monetary issuance that, among other factors, fuels inflation. Today, Bitcoin is the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency. Within a few years, using cryptocurrencies will be as common as paying with QR codes or contactless cards at any local shop.
Bitcoin’s success lies in the fact that, while fiat currencies like the dollar, peso, or real are subject to political decisions on issuance and inevitably depreciate over time, Bitcoin appreciates because its issuance is limited, and no authority can change its rules. In high-inflation countries such as Argentina and Venezuela, cryptocurrency adoption has surged as people lose trust in their governments’ monetary policies. Beyond Bitcoin, platforms like Ethereum allow for loans and transactions without banks, reinforcing the trend toward economic decentralization. In 2021, Nayib Bukele, Latin America’s first millennial president, made Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador and established a state reserve in the cryptocurrency. It is estimated that El Salvador has gained approximately 120% in its Bitcoin reserves, reaching around $600 million.
In the media landscape, the authority of journalists and traditional outlets like newspapers, radio, and television has diminished in shaping public opinion. According to Gallup, while 7 in 10 Americans said in 1970 that they trusted news media significantly, by 2024, that number had dropped to just 3 in 10, with trust falling to around 25% among those under 30. The internet and social media have allowed users to hyper-fragment their consumption of information, creating an almost personalized selection of what they consume, when, and where.
However, as explained by sociologist Paul Lazarsfeld’s two-step flow theory (in The People’s Choice), public opinion continues to be shaped by influential figures who act as intermediaries of information. Instead of journalists and traditional media, today this role is filled by streamers, podcasters, and digital content creators—such as Joe Rogan in the United States—who interpret and amplify news for their audiences. Generative artificial intelligence is taking information consumption to a new level, allowing each person to curate the content they consume, in their preferred format and with their desired characteristics. In a few years, it will be enough to type a prompt for software to generate unique and exclusive content for each individual.
Through social media and digital platforms, new political leaders bypass traditional structures like political parties and mainstream media, establishing an almost intimate connection with their followers. They do not need media outlets or journalists to reach audiences. They have Twitch, Instagram, and Facebook. They can create their own content, communities, and communication strategies without relying on a media CEO, a journalist’s approval, or a producer’s guidance. Each user decides what to watch, and a simple scroll is enough to mute any politician.
Communication no longer depends on spokespeople; instead, leaders present themselves “in the flesh,” speaking directly to individuals without intermediaries. This reinforces the perception of closeness and the feeling that the leader is “one of us”—listening, speaking, and experiencing life just like ordinary people. It is true that before reaching Argentina’s Casa Rosada, Javier Milei frequented television sets more than most candidates. However, his ability to connect with voters, gain recognition, and attract support was not due to television but rather to captivating YouTube Shorts, secondary accounts like “El Peluca Milei” that re-edited and amplified his TV appearances, and his own social media posts.
The crisis of authority is driving transformations in new leadership. Many of these leaders have realized that power today is gained and maintained through disruption, emotion, and direct communication. They present themselves as the very embodiment of change, the spokesperson for people’s emotions, and the friend who speaks without filters. Politics, at its core, has changed.
Perhaps it is time to ask whether these bold and approachable new leadership styles will truly transform our societies—or whether, in the end, they will simply become another face of a system still searching for its path in uncertain times.
*Machine translation proofread by Janaína da Silva.
Autor
Professor at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and the University of Belgrano, Argentina, where he also conducts research on political and electoral behavior, political communication, and political psychology. He holds a Master's degree from FLACSO and is a political scientist and sociologist from the UBA.
