The Philippines staged the People Power Revolution from 22 to 25 February 1986 and showcased to the world that dictators can be toppled through sustained and nonviolent civil resistance. The revolution resulted in the departure of Ferdinand Marcos, an end to his 20-year dictatorship, and the restoration of democratic institutions in the country.
Mass participation is critical in social and political changes. This has been demonstrated by various revolutions in the past like the French Revolution which began in 1789 and resulted in the removal of the French monarchy, the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s to 1960s, and the 1989 Velvet Revolution which ended the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.
However, because mass participation is a critical element in sociopolitical affairs, the public has also been considered complicit in the rise of despots or dictators and fascist leaders. The degree of their involvement even goes as far as regarding them as the unseen hand that plants and cultivates further an authoritarian rule and an oppressive regime.
The Culpability of the Masses: How the Public Puts Dictators in Power and Enables Oppression in Authoritarian Regimes
Original Theoretical Foundation
French magistrate and political theorist Étienne de La Boétie, especially in his essay and political treatise “Discourse of Voluntary Servitude” which was published in 1577, raised the question of why people submit to authority. He asserted that governance is unnatural and individuals would not allow themselves to submit to anybody else if they followed their natural rights.
He argued further that tyranny perseveres because people allow it by giving up their freedom for servitude. The public continues to voluntarily accept servitude because they were born and raised in enslavement. Take note that people are not born slaves, but over time, they become accustomed to servitude. The process happens gradually and often over generations.
La Boétie explained that people become willing servants and complicit of despots or tyrants not through a one-time or straightforward and force-induced process. He considered the entire process as something that people fall into through habit, distraction, fear, and social conditioning. Below are the elements of this process as derived from his 1577 political treatise:
• Habit is the Root of Servitude: Remember that people are not born slaves, but over time, they become habituated to servitude, and this happens gradually and over generations, until it becomes part of customs. Custom fuels voluntary servitude.
• Creating an Illusion of Legitimacy: Tyrants surround themselves with smokescreens of legitimacy like religion, law, and ideologies. The people are inclined to internalize these efforts. Resistance then appears immoral and ungrateful.
• Distracted With Simple Pleasures: People often seek pleasure from entertainment and small material comforts. Tyrants deliberately provide these sources of pleasure to keep the general public distracted and make them complacent.
• Creating a Chain of Dependence: Tyrants also create a chain of dependence. Each level benefits from the level above it. This creates a pyramid of servitude and complicity. Those who benefit from this system keep the tyrants in power.
The intention of La Boétie goes beyond examining how people put tyrants in power. His political treatise is a call to action. Remember that tyranny and the resulting oppression depend on active participation. La Boétie proposed that freedom can be reclaimed by awakening the human will to resist which will result in the individual and collective withdrawal of consent.
Works By Other Thinkers
The “Discourse of Voluntary Servitude” by La Boétie is one of the oldest and famous explorations of the idea that tyrants or dictators are enabled or empowered by the people. Remember that it was first published in 1577 and was later reproduced and translated. It is still worth noting that this idea has become a recurring theme in political philosophy and political history.
German and American historian and philosopher Hannah Arendt analyzed Nazism and Stalinism in “The Origins of Totalitarianism” which was published in 1951. She argued that totalitarian regimes emerge from the following specific social, political, and psychological conditions that make the people and entire populations vulnerable to totalitarian ideologies:
• Collapse of Traditional Structures: Totalitarianism thrives in societies where existing social and political institutions have weakened or collapsed. These include loss of trust in democratic institutions and collapse of the rule of law.
• Role of Mass Loneliness and Isolation: It also feeds on social atomization or the isolation of individuals from one another. Disconnected individuals tend to participate in movements that offer identity, meaning, and a sense of belonging.
• Emergence of Ideological Thinking: Totalitarianism depends on very rigid ideologies or simplified worldviews that claim to explain everything and demand total loyalty. These ideologies replace facts with slogans and demand absolute belief.
• Mobilization Through Mass Movement: It also transforms a society into a movement to mobilize an entire population. This is total domination of thought, behavior, and private life. Mass movement gives people a collective identity.
Arendt argues that totalitarianism argues that totalitarianism is a total system that takes root when societies are fragmented, people are isolated, and mass ideologies offer simple answers to complex problems. Mass movements do not just follow tyrants. These movements are social forces that create and maintain totalitarian regimes and oppressive leaders.
Moreover, in “They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945” which was published in 1955, American journalist and educator Milton Mayer examined and discussed how ordinary Germans came to accept, participate in, and even find satisfaction in a totalitarian system under the Nazi regime and Adolf Hitler through a gradual and often unnoticed processed.
The seminal work explained that Nazism did not arrive as an immediate evil. It gradually emerged from a series of small and seemingly insignificant changes that accumulated over time. People became habituated to being governed by surprise, to decisions made in secret, and to believing the government had information the common people could not understand.
Notable Examples in History
Remember that Arendt presented her discussion under the lens of Nazism in Germany and the rise of Stalinism in the Soviet Union. These two provide prime historical examples of how people were complicit in the emergence of Hitler and Stalin in power. Mayer also underscored how Germans not only accepted but also participated and find satisfaction in Nazism.
Actual examples of people enabling the rise of despots or dictators and supporting their oppressive regimes further often happened through election participation, support for mass movements, and passive acceptance. The fascist movement of Benito Mussolini in Italy gained momentum through mass street demonstrations and the March on Rome demonstration in 1922.
The right-wing dictatorship of Francisco Franco of Spain emerged in 1939 through the support of conservatives, monarchists, and the Roman Catholic Church. Vladimir Putin was first put in power through a democratic election in 2000. He gained mass acceptance through nationalism, a strongman image, economic recovery, and Russian foreign policy.
Moreover, amid anger at corruption and inequality, Venezuela elected Hugo Chávez in 1998. Most of his supporters were poor and working-class Venezuelans who embraced his populist message and economic promises. He later changes the constitution to expand his powers and weaken checks and balances. Venezuela slid into sociopolitical unrest and economic collapse.
The same was true for Ferdinand Marcos. He was elected Philippine president in 1965 and was able to remain in power until 1986 by declaring martial law in 1972. His leadership was described as a kleptocratic dictatorship marked by human rights abuses and massive corruption. Marcos was ousted from office through the historical nonviolent People Power Revolution.
It is important to underscore the fact that the examples above involved the masses rooting for charismatic and transformative leadership. The participation of these people often coincided with a widespread social crisis like a longstanding economic downturn or sentiments against current leaders which resulted in disillusionment in the current sociopolitical order.
FURTHER READERS AND REFERENCES
- Abensour, M. 2011. “Is There a Proper Way to Use the Voluntary Servitude Hypothesis?” Journal of Political Ideologies. 16(3): 329-348. DOI: 1080/13569317.2011.607299
- Arendt, H. 1951. The Origins of Totalitarianism. Schocken Books
- La Boétie, E. D. 1577. The Discourse on Voluntary Servitude. Trans. Kurtz, H. Available online
- Mayer, M. 1955. They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945. University of Chicago Press.