Rodrigo Duterte as “the Trump of Asia”? The Limits and Pitfalls of Thin Comparison

The former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte often gets lumped together with the former U.S. president Donald Trump on the basis of their autocratic practices. However, there are crucial differences in their respective situations and the reception of their autocratic practices on the ground. Consequently, if we understand Duterte only through Trump or with reference to the category of “emerging autocrat” then we end up misunderstanding the situation in the Philippines. This article is about the limits and pitfalls of thin comparison and the necessity of thicker ones. It advocates understanding practices embedded in the social structures and processes that make them meaningful. I proceed as follows: I present the case of Rodrigo Duterte and review the grounds for lumping him along with Trump as an emerging autocrat. I then pursue a thicker comparison of Duterte and Trump, putting their support in economic, social, political, and historical context and highlighting substantial differences in their respective situations. Finally, I argue that thin comparisons are especially susceptible to interpretive biases in general and highlight three such biases—toward contemporaneity, continuity, and centrality—using the case of Duterte to illustrate.