Tech-Patrimonialism: The Dictator's New Playbook

This article was originally published by Wired (Japan) in January 2026. Wired holds the copyright over all language editions.

The latest generation of new technologies - from social media to AI - is revolutionizing the ways in which we communicate, learn, socialize, and work. It shouldn’t be surprising that it is also fundamentally changing the ways leaders govern. In fact, it was a matter of when and not if new tech would give rise to a new form of governance: something I will call tech-patrimonialism.

Tech-patrimonialism is a blend of anti-institutionalism and tech supremacy. Patrimonialism is one of the oldest and most common forms of governance, where power is personalized and the state derives its legitimacy not from its institutions but from the leader himself (yes, he is usually male). With the leader as the pater, "the symbolic father of the people", trust in institutions is replaced with individual trust in the leader. Bureaucracy becomes redundant, and checks and balances become undesirable. Today, these leaders make extensive use of new technologies to maximize their legitimacy. Myth-making has traditionally helped cement a leader's legitimacy by portraying him as God-like or divinely chosen. Social media and AI become the ultimate tools for crafting such legends and monitoring political dissidents. Driven by a potent mix of algorithms and human biases, these technologies are shifting our reliance from institutional trust to personal charisma, while replacing factual discourse with emotionally charged messaging. Deep fakes, social bots, and AI-generated campaigns further intensify this trend, blurring the boundaries between reality and fabrication. Unwittingly, we have entered the Digital Middle Ages.

From Asia to Africa, Latin America to the Middle East, we see variations of tech-patrimonialism taking root. There are numerous examples of such personalized, leader-focused governance in combination with tech surveillance and AI-supported propaganda: Russia’s Safe City AI Surveillance Program under Putin includes an advanced facial recognition system, which has been used to identify and detain individuals participating in unsanctioned rallies. In India, Narendra Modi cultivates a near-messianic image, reinforced by high-tech biometric tracking and digital real-time surveillance. The Chinese social credit system is arguably the most sophisticated form of tech-enabled behavioral governance, designed to ensure loyalty to the country’s leadership.

In 2026, the list of countries adopting advanced forms of cyber-surveillance and AI-driven monitoring tools to consolidate power under increasingly authoritarian leadership will grow further. Recently, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched the HUMAIN AI initiative, which deploys urban security and AI-powered crowd control systems. Meanwhile, Turkey and Myanmar have procured Russian and Chinese technologies for real-time urban monitoring - from facial recognition tools integrated into police body cameras to license plate readers built into AI-powered CCTV networks.

AI-based surveillance is just one of the reasons why the growing personalization of power is fueled by digital technologies. According to anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse, human minds are predisposed to three cognitive biases - religiosity, tribalism, and conformism - which can all be harnessed by leaders to drive change or cement their own power. Tech-patrimonialism further amplifies these human instincts: Leaders can use microtargeting and AI-based campaigns to provoke emotional responses and promote their own brand. Vladimir Putin pioneered this strand of tech-patrimonialism, using digital technologies to run sophisticated psychological operations that bolster his own legitimacy and undermine that of any opponents inside and outside of Russia.

Now, other leaders are racing to replicate this playbook, setting off a chain reaction that will further accelerate the spread of digital authoritarian tools in 2026. In the Philippines, a network around former President Rodrigo Duterte built “click armies” of inauthentic accounts, including avatars, sock puppets, and bots, which manipulated the online discourse in Duterte’s favor ahead of the 2016 elections and grew more sophisticated over time. The far-right party Alternative for Germany has also started using generative AI to create more impactful, emotionally captivating content and glorify its own frontrunners.

In the U.S., “Cambridge Analytica” was just the beginning for election manipulation via microtargeting in democratic countries. Since then, the Trump camp has further finetuned the hybridization of tech and patrimonialism. “Campaign Nucleus” used machine learning to segment voters into psychographic micro-cohorts and automated the delivery of hyper-personalized messages via social media, email, and private messages. From “draining the swamp” and eradicating political opponents to boosting pro-Trump campaigns using AI-supported digital analytics, the U.S. appears to be undergoing a transformation reminiscent of Mao's Cultural Revolution, marked by a systematic dismantling of educational, media, and judicial institutions.

All of this comes at a time when frustrations about the political, economic, and social status quo continue to push people towards “strongmen” who offer simple solutions. Charismatic, authoritarian leaders are gaining traction, while trust in institutions is declining rapidly across the world. The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer found high levels of distrust in government, media, business, and NGOs across 28 countries, with forty percent of populations approving hostile activism to drive change. Another recently published study based on over five million responses from 143 countries demonstrated that trust in parliaments has steadily declined since 1990. This downward trend is observable in democracies as diverse as Australia, Brazil, France, South Korea, and the United States. Recent data from Afrobarometer also showed that Africans trust political institutions less than they did a decade ago.

Tech-patrimonialism is already influencing the future of democracy in many parts of the world. As radical populist movements gain ground and AI becomes more advanced, in 2026, more leaders striving for personalized power will start borrowing from the tech-patrimonial playbook.