John Iduh Blog

Iran is often described as a paradox: a country with elections, a parliament, and a president—yet one where real political power is firmly concentrated in the hands of a single unelected figure. To understand this contradiction, one must look closely at how the regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has institutionalized and normalized a distinctly Shia Islamic form of autocracy within the framework of the Islamic Republic. At the center of Iran’s political system lies the doctrine of Velayat-e Faqih , or Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist . Conceived during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, this principle holds that ultimate political authority must rest with a senior Shiʿa cleric who safeguards Islam and the state. While presented as a religious necessity, in practice it establishes a hierarchy in which all democratic institutions are subordinate to clerical power. Since assuming the position of Supreme Leader in 1989, Khamenei has become the embodiment of this system. His authority extends fa...

Nigeria is constitutionally a democracy, electorally a republic, and procedurally pluralist. Yet in practice, political power is concentrated within a narrow and remarkably resilient elite. This paradox—formal democracy coexisting with elite domination—can be analytically captured by the concept of democratic oligarchy . Nigeria’s political system illustrates how democratic institutions may persist in form while substantive power remains monopolized by a small, interconnected ruling class. At the heart of Nigeria’s democratic oligarchy is the fusion of political authority, economic power, and social privilege. Elections are regularly held, parties compete, and constitutional order is maintained. However, access to political office is overwhelmingly restricted to those with substantial financial resources, elite networks, and patronage capacity. Politics, in this sense, is less a mechanism for popular representation than a site for elite circulation. Electoral competition determines whi...

Analyzing authoritarian fascism in the United States through the case of the Trump regime requires conceptual care and historical sobriety. The Trump presidency did not constitute a fascist dictatorship, nor did it abolish constitutional democracy. Yet it offers a revealing case of how authoritarian and proto-fascist tendencies can emerge, normalize themselves, and exert lasting pressure within a long-standing democratic system. The value of the case lies not in categorical claims, but in what it exposes about democratic vulnerability. From the outset, the Trump regime was anchored in a populist logic that divided society into two irreconcilable camps: a virtuous, “real” people and a corrupt, illegitimate elite. This antagonism was not merely rhetorical; it became the organizing principle of governance. Institutions traditionally understood as neutral arbiters—courts, electoral authorities, intelligence agencies, the civil service, and the press—were systematically recast as enemies of...

Melonian populism in Italy represents a distinctive iteration of contemporary right-wing populism—one that blends nationalist rhetoric, cultural conservatism, and institutional pragmatism within the formal boundaries of democratic governance. Under the leadership of Giorgia Meloni, this political phenomenon has reshaped Italy’s ideological landscape, not by rejecting democracy outright, but by redefining its meaning, its enemies, and its beneficiaries. At its core, Melonian populism is constructed around a moralized conception of the people . The Italian nation is portrayed as culturally homogeneous, historically rooted, and unjustly marginalized—both by cosmopolitan elites at home and technocratic authorities abroad. This narrative situates Meloni and her party, Fratelli d’Italia , as authentic representatives of national will, standing in opposition to what is depicted as a detached political class, unelected European bureaucracies, and progressive cultural forces allegedly eroding t...

A new spectre is haunting the world—not the revolutionary fervor that animated the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but its apparent opposite: the steady, adaptive resurgence of authoritarianism. Across regions and regimes, we observe a pattern that challenges long-held assumptions about the inevitability of democratic progress. Authoritarianism today rarely arrives by tanks in the streets or the abrupt suspension of constitutions. Instead, it advances incrementally, clothed in the language of legality, security, efficiency, and even democracy itself. The contemporary authoritarian turn must be understood not as a simple revival of old dictatorships, but as a transformation in form and strategy. Classical authoritarian regimes ruled primarily through overt repression and centralized coercion. By contrast, many of today’s authoritarian systems operate through what scholars have termed competitive authoritarianism or illiberal democracy . Elections are held, courts function, and medi...

Good morning, world. Like many people, I am still processing how dramatically the global landscape shifted last week. President Donald Trump’s extraordinary threats against Greenland and by implication against America’s NATO allies did more than shock diplomats. They crystallized a truth that many world leaders had sensed for years but hesitated to say aloud: the rules based international order is fading, if not already gone. That truth was voiced plainly by Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney who declared that the old assumptions about global cooperation, predictability, and shared rules no longer hold. His words resonated powerfully at the World Economic Forum in Davos where he quickly became an unlikely symbol of clarity in an increasingly uncertain world. What made Carney’s statement remarkable was not just its bluntness but its timing. It arrived at a moment when ambiguity was no longer sustainable. Canada’s response to this new reality is particularly instructive. Long accustomed...

AI is useful. AI is important.  Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing how work is done across industries. From automation to smart assistants, many routine tasks once handled by humans are now performed by machines. This shift has raised a critical question for students, professionals, and job seekers: which jobs and skills remain in high demand and cannot be replaced by AI? Despite rapid technological growth, many careers depend on uniquely human abilities such as empathy, judgment, creativity, ethics, and physical presence. These roles remain essential and future-proof. Healthcare and caregiving careers remain among the safest from AI replacement. While AI can support diagnosis, monitoring, and record-keeping, it cannot replace human care. Nurses, midwives, caregivers, and therapists are in high demand because healthcare requires compassion, ethical decision-making, hands-on care, and real-time judgment in unpredictable situations. Skills such as clinical judgment, communicati...