The thing that struck me with today's personal rule subject was the advantages of dictatorships.. I mean, thinking of negatives aside (not trying to be edgy) - if there was a benevolent ruler, who was actually a nice guy, what would the problem be? I understand that power corrupts even the most lawfully good souls... but that doesn't mean everyone was bad. Take for example Lenin, the man studied Law in St. Petersburg, gave most of his money away to the poor when he was young/teen-aged. Sure, there may have been multiple thousands of deaths in the name of Leninism but not by his hand or his will.
Lenin wanted to build Russia from the ground up, it was not his decision to kill the royal family, in fact Yukov was one of the only one that wanted to do that, of course getting higher credence from the likes of Stalin.
Lenin built Russia into a power house, industrialising the country even further than it ever could have gotten, he built up the economy, unionised and gave his life for the good fight of equality. Essentially he created a strong central leadership. One in which he was the governor, with the help of his trusted friend Trotsky.... and somewhat Stalin, who grew in favour with the Bolshevik caucus.
Trotsky was always there to help Lenin when 'greed' may have consumed him, as Trotsky wasn't all in the public life, he wasn't at all in it for the money. He helped establish a reasonably stable rule (while he was alive) - obviously it all went downhill when he died.
Then we look at a bad dictator Amin, who spread war, fear and racism (especially against Asians) in his coutry. He based his rule on a heavy iron fist that would come with a moments notice to all those who opposed him, favouring to keep splendor and riches of his country and felled foes to himself. His system killed any initiative or strive his people had and led to mass killings of over 80,000 - 100,000. He made the state subordinate to him. There really is nothing more to say.
The point being, maybe it's the conditions of the eruptions of a dictatorship that really justify its means and whether it will be a successful one, maybe it's the character of the 'dictator' or his ability to not fall within the vat off insanity that leads one to be successful. There are potentially more ill-gotten dictators then there ever were good ones. But doesn't it ring true that there are also terrible democracies? maybe even false democracies which are totalitarian.
I guess the point I want to make is, it's about the person who rules and the state of their mind, which governs how they will be perceived and how they will rule. There are always good rulers and bad rulers.
Could not agree more, but what if some people do not agree with the dictator's views? Shouldn't the be able to express their own views?
ReplyDeleteGood point Alexander!
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DeleteLazar - as the old proverb says, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Stalin was the son of a cobbler and never had any interest in material things; if anything it was he, not Lenin, who really industrialized (at a cost of hundreds of thousands, and probably millions, of lives of expropriated peasants). By Lenin's death industrial output had only reached the level of perhaps 1913, and the NEP (New Economic Policy) was a "go slow" approach to industrialization that leftists in the party (including Trotsky) were uncomfortable with. And Lenin could be quite ruthless - he was certainly ruthless in his suppression of those he thought were his enemies, and intolerant of dissent.
ReplyDeleteUltimately in the Soviet Union the policies that were adopted were not simply Stalin's personal whims, as in Uganda, but directly derived from the interpretation of Marxism-Leninism then in favor; they had a logic that was supported by many people in the party and among workers in the cities (though not among peasants).
"Good" dictators - to the extent there are any - create institutions to prevent bad individuals from having too much power after they are gone. And how do you do this without giving up some power?