Power
Hello dear subscribers. Today’s podcast welcomes Jean-Paul Ruszkowski, who has served as CEO of the Parliamentary Centre in Canada as well as as Chief of Staff and senior advisor to two Canadian Cabinet Ministers.
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Power
“Power does not corrupt. Fear of the loss of power corrupts”.
John Steinbeck
Henry Kissinger once noted that power is the great aphrodisiac. In many ways he was right. Few leaders leave office voluntarily – they only leave when voted out, defeated at the polls or by revolution.
There are notable exceptions.
Nelson Mandela could have governed South Africa for his entire life given his popularity and the role he played in ending apartheid. Instead, he left at the end of his presidential term and lived out his life working to consolidate democracy in his country and promote it abroad through the founding of “The Elders”, a group of retired foreign leaders committed to the expansion of democracy.
Jacinda Ardern put New Zealand on the global map through her wise use of power and her ability to connect with her voters. She also decided to leave before her term came to an end, realizing that she had little more to give and that hanging on to power would only diminish governance.
Kenny Rogers once sang you have to know when to hold them and know when to fold them.
Unfortunately, some leaders will never follow his advice. They tend to forget Denis Diderot’s advice, that no man has received from nature the right to command his fellow human beings. They hang on to power at any cost to the electorate, including their enslavement in an autocratic system in which personal freedoms are lost.
Pope Francis once noted that, “In Europe first and now in America, elected men have taken it upon themselves to indebt their people to create an atmosphere of dependency. And why? For their own selfish need to increase their own personal power.
Creating a system in which the public depends on the government for their sustenance is very much in vogue.
As Erich Fromm has written, the lust for power is not rooted in strength but in weakness.
And so is the thirst for a strong leader in times of adversity.
When the public finds itself fearing an alternative, and this fear is promoted by a strong leader, the result is devastating. People tend to fear anything that threatens them, and support anyone who promises security.
Most autocratic leaders begin by focusing on the weakness of fear, dividing society into an “us” and a “them” and provide the “us” (usually the lower economic strata of society) with enough to subsist on. They demonize the “them” until they enjoy total power, and then rig the system so that they control all the levers of power, often by constitutional means.
One may not have to look too far to find this phenomenon in established democracies. Hungary’s Viktor Orban is slowly strangling democracy in his country by using the constitution and the courts to destroy democratic institutions and consolidate power.
The US’s Donald Trump promises to establish a dictatorship on day one if he is elected in November, and currently runs neck in neck with President Biden.
Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba are prime examples in our hemisphere of this objective by a supreme leader to remain in power until they die, and even then, try to leave their spouses, children, or chosen siccessors in charge.
Nicolas Maduro faces a strong opposition candidate in the next presidential election, even after ensuring that the most popular candidates were barred from running on trumped up charges. Maduro has consolidated his power by placing high-ranking military officers in charge of most of the state companies, ensuring them wealth as long as the regime lasts. As well, his security forces are supported by Cuban intelligence and security officers well trained in the art of controlling the population and ensuring that fear of arrest, torture, and imprisonment remain tools of the regime.
Nicaragua continues to be ruled by the husband-and-wife team of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo who together have run this dictatorship since 2007. Ortega has imprisoned or disappeared hundreds of opponents, has exiled hundreds as well, stripping them of their citizenship, and constantly attacks the Catholic Church and its institutions for their support for democracy and human rights.
The communist regime in Cuba has been in power since 1959 and continues to be a total dictatorship. Despite occasional anti-regime demonstrations and the departure of hundreds of thousands of refugees, it remains strong, with support from Russia, China, and Iran. It leads Latin America’s opposition to Western democracy and is not expected to be defeated any time soon.
Iran and Russia follow similar patterns.
The Iranian regime, led by Ayatollah Khamenei, is a religious dictatorship that murders thousands of it citizens every year – many of them women and girls simply protesting draconian dress laws and a misogynistic theology.
Russia’s Vladimir Putin is set to be dictator for life. His armed forces have invaded Ukraine murdering tens of thousands of people while, at home, his security forces arrest, imprison, or murder tens of thousands of dissidents or would-be dissidents.
There are many more countries whose rulers are dictators and wield power to the detriment of their people. They rule by force instead of laws and use fear as the glue that holds their regimes together – fear of the “other” and fear of the leader and his machinery of power.
Since the citizens cannot access jobs and food without the regime’s consent, it has no trouble getting tens of thousands of “supporters” onto the streets every time that their egos need reinforcing.
James Madison once wrote that “Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions”.
This is the underlying truth of all dictatorships – each citizen lives at the mercy of the dictator and the government apparatus, and none is free to choose anything other than what the dictator decides.
Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, said Lord Acton.
Never were truer words spoken!
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