With recent events becoming clearer in Turkey, now appears to be a good time to discuss methods of government outside the standard western concpet of liberal representative democracy. Where I live, every 5 years we all get together and as a population, choose who will form our next govenment. Alternatives to this system exist. But two notably rare forms of government are those of the omnipresent dictatorship, and mob rule.
What these two styles of govenment have in common is that they are never official. When these systems take hold no-one stands up to say this is now a dictatorship. All that is realised is that power has shifted. Despite this, the two can be compared as methods of government. Which is better? But in truth, it's extremely difficult to compare the two. Mob rule has only genuinely taken hold iin fleeting moments of history. Most notably the witch trials. As for an omnipresent dictatorship, Stalin's USSR and Hitler's Germany quickly spring to mind.
The failed coup attempt in Turkey appears more and more like a power grab from Erdogan, but almost one that the people support. Shocking images of supporters confronting army personel on the streets showed almost a support of dictatorship and a power grab. A support of the end of secularism, an islamist regime. Since the faliure of the coup, 2,000 judges [1], 60,000 officials [2] and 45,000 civil servants [3] including soldiers and ministerial workers have been purged from the Turkish state. Consolidating power has certainly been on Erdogan's agenda for a while. It is some weird hybrid of mob rule demanding dictatorship. This can be likened to Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party being elected into power, and subsequent consolidation of power after the Reichstag fire.
Despite this, we can look at both forms of government and assess their merits. Mob rule is a difficult thing to characterise, but is often driven by hysteria. Most witch-hunts occurred within the contruct of a monarchy. However one distinctive witch hunt occurred in almost pure isolation, with very little authority. The events that occurred in Salem, Massacheusets from 1692-1693 were a unique exploration of mob rule and hysteria. This is due to the complete isolation that this new colony had felt. They were exiled puritans, cut off from any of other way of life for over half a century. This reached a boiling point in the witch trials, which saw the only recorded execution in the USA by pressing [4], of Giles Corey.
In some ways, the repressiveness of puritan society in Salem was a direct tributary to a hysteria breaking out, and mob rule taking hold, where one action is holy, and its opposite is of Lucifer. This, alongside most dictatorship shows how each regime is driven by ideoogy and idealism of a utopia, where an action is directly hindering the promised land for everyone else. We have never seen a dictatorship that isn't ideologically driven, except perhaps, in George Orwell's 1984. A faceless, totalitarian regime, not driven by utopia, but by a ruthless instilling of order. Which is ultimately what a dictatorship boils down to. Authority and absolute order. Mob rule, by its definition, is one of free will, and the people doing what they wish, as a collective. Not an anarchy exactly, but extreme in its sense of freedom.
Establishing this, we can assess the strengths of each. Order is certainly desirable in a society. It is comfortable, knowing you have a place in society, but also establishes a hierarchy, where people can be suppressed effectively. Mob rule is oddly similar in its appeasement of the people. In fact, its entire structure is based on participation, and citizens feel more comfortable the more they buy into the system of accusation and participation in witch hunts. This creates a positive feedback loop, where citizens become more and more loyal to government and government becomes even harder to topple. With this, mob rule is far more effective at suppressing opposition, as someone needs to go against those they stand shoulder to shoulder with, not those they see up above commanding them. It would be less of an uprising, and more of a betrayal. Heresy. Witchcraft.
As far consolidation of power goes. The mob rule, once it properly gets going, is extremely effective in establishing order, despite its unorderly appearance. Even more so than an authoritative dictatorship.
1. http://www.mystatesman.com/news/ap/top-news/turkish-president-says-hes-in-control-coup-falteri/nrzBT/
2. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/02/world/europe/turkey-purge-erdogan-scale.html
3. http://www.cnnturk.com/turkiye/iste-darbe-sorusturmasinda-kamuda-aciga-alinanlarin-kurum-kurum-listesi
4. Goss, K David, The Salem Witch Trials: A Reference Guide, P32, 2007.
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