Colm Gillis The Terrible Beauty of Dictatorship (original) (raw)

How Dictatorships Work: Power, Personalization and Collapse

Many people still recall TV images of Egyptian protestors upon storming State Security premises in Alexandria in March 3rd, 2011 as they laid hands on a treasure store of archives composed of detailed files and full reports. After selfie-taking inside the notorious building, burning some documents and seizing a few as souvenir, they eventually handed most of the found to the army. Thus, political activists wasted a golden opportunity to understand how they have been ruled for nearly a century. The waste counts among those fatal mistakes revolutionary Egyptians did, according to El Raggal. 1 For indeed, no one can reverse anything, least of all, dictatorships without understanding exactly how they intrinsically operate. Likewise, the authors of How Dictatorships Work show that dictatorships cannot be put all in the same bag. And any useful clue regarding how they reach their decision making and implement these decisions merit a careful study if only for curiosity's sake, let alone, if one entertains a project of bringing dictatorships down. Confused and sometimes even blinded by the neoliberal order, many observers see little point or reward in studying dictatorships, not only because their numbers have never ceased of dwindling since the end of World War II but in consequence of a predominate assumption that even those relatively few surviving are heading toward extinction anyways! In How Dictatorships Work, Barbra Geddes et. al remind us that even if they have no place in humanity future, we still have to carefully study them at least because dictatorships do not come 1

The spirit of despotism: Understanding the tyrant within

The objective of this article is to better understand the developmental history of despotic regimes and the existence of leadership by terror. To gain greater insight into this phenomenon, the unusual relationship between leaders and followers in despotic regimes is explored, and the self-destructive cycle that characterizes such regimes is examined. The price paid in the form of human suffering and the breakdown of the moral fabric of a society is highlighted. In this article, particular attention is paid to highly intrusive totalitarian regimes. The levers used by such regimes to consolidate their power base are discussed in detail. The role of ideology, the enforcement of mind-control, the impact of the media, the inception of the illusion of solidarity, and the search for scapegoats are part of the review. Finally, suggestions are made on how to prevent despotic leaders from gaining a hold on power. Observations are made about the newly founded International Criminal Court, a permanent international judicial body that has been specially set up to try despotic rulers for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

Democracy and Dictatorship: Means and Ends of the State

Critique, 2006

ABSTRACT This article explores Walter Benjamin's insight according to which the tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the State of emergency is not the exception but the rule. The liberal state tradition, and not just its authoritarian wing, understands this well and does indeed conceive of the state as the executive committee of the bourgeoisie. The neo-liberal conception of laissez-faire does not extend to the state. Laissez-faire is no response to riots. That is to say, neo-liberalism does not view dictatorship as the opposite to the liberal democratic state but sees it instead as a means that safeguards the ends of the rule of law in the face of democratic pressures.