This week's lecture focused on personalism in government. I was interested in this topic as the idea of one person having so much power was intriguing. I thought to myself how does the situation arise for an individual to gain such large sums of power and influence? How does one maintain this influence? And most importantly how does one pass down this form of governance? Is that even a thought that occurs to a personalist ruler?
Though of course there are some personality rules that are dominated by a rule of a select group of elite, however I would like to focus on personalist governance dominated by a single individual instead. Throughout the world there are many examples of this.
For example one of the most infamous personalist dictators, Kim Jong Un. His reign over North Korea has been largely thanks to his family line, whose dominance over the North Korean government allowed the original Kim Il Sung to have complete control of the nation. I would say that the Sung family line is far more important and powerful than the ruling WPK party. I was fascinated to see how the personalist rule was passed down from descendant to descendant, with each new generation still being adored and admired. It is evident in North Korea that although the rule is focused heavily on the individual, the individual still thinks about the next ruler, as Kim Jong Un has plans for his daughter; Kim Ju-ae to become the next ruler of North Korea should he ever pass away.
This intrigued me as I personally thought that personalist rulers and dictators would not care about the person to come after them, as in my mind they would only care about their singular rule and less about the party or the ideology of the nation. This stems from the perception that a personalist rule is a selfish rule, and thus the leaders themselves must be selfish.
However this North Korea example begs the question, if a personalist ruler simply passes down his rule to his family members who are equally liked amongst the public, then isn’t it a pseudo-monarchy? Perhaps personalist rulers and governance is simply the modern evolution of monarchy, and perhaps kings and queens are simply dictatorships.
Good points Manate - and yes, personalist dictators often do think of succession - mostly to family, but sometimes to others. But they do not often achieve it - those who do, turn their regime into dynastic monarchies essentially, as in North Korea.
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