Leaders and personality cults.

Started reading about leadership and personality cults, found an interesting paper by Sarah Gail Hunter on the subject. The author argues that the failure of institutions (or the loss of public faith in institutions) can open the way to personality cults. Some excerpts from the paper follow.

"failure of institutions is a necessary precondition for personality cult formation. If institutions were functioning perfectly well, then the people would not have to find an alternative source of authority. However, dysfunctional institutions do bring about mass resentment and become unpopular with the people. Existing institutions can fail the people by not delivering on promises. That means that institutions can fail the people by bad policies that lead to: bankruptcy (Greece today), inflation (Weimar Germany), unemployment (last year’s riots in UK), corruption, not delivering on welfare or pension promises (again, Greece), as well as lack of physical security (as discussed earlier with North Korea). No matter the cause of turmoil, once the faith in institutions is lost, a void is created and a personality can easily step up to fill said void. From here, a personality cult is not eminent, but the opportunity has been created. As a result, a figure can emerge as the hero, the victor."

These preconditions are identical to those that Hayek's identified as causing the descent to dictatorship. Personality cults can necessarily arise only among dictators although not all dictators will have personality cults attached.  The paper suggests some clues to identify the formation of personality cults.

1. Ideology

Many personality cults emerge from a nationalist surge, or another ideology with a unifying element. Such ideologies are more aggressive in how they spread or manifest. Nationalism, a common culprit, is defined by Druckman (1994) as a feeling that “involved feelings of national superiority and a need for national power and dominance” (47). Nationalism is more about the exclusion of others and is associated with more war-like tendencies (Druckman 1994).

2. Ideal leader

Personality cults often form around people who are seen as the national ideal. This ideal can be anything from the ideal Communist (as Stalin tried to be) to the ideal nationalist (as Chiang Kai-Shek claimed to be). This relied on a careful presentation of the leader to the public. The public could only see the side of the leader that the leader (or his party) wanted them to see........

..The concept behind the ideal is that the masses need to connect to some aspect of the leader’s personality. The leader had to have a public persona that has appeal to the masses. Garzia (2011) argued that politics has become very personal and that political success requires a symbolic closeness and identifying with the masses. Chaing and Stalin both had appeal to the broader population.

3. State controlled media

...They used the media as a tool to expose the masses to only the public persona, and not the real person. Therefore, media control is an important part of building a cult of personality, especially if the one building is the person around which the cult is formed.

4. Great men in history

As the leader builds his or her public persona, he or she often has a guild in the form of a historical figure of immense popularity. This tool often associates the personality not only with a nationalist cause, but also with someone who had great success with said national cause. In the minds of the people, the personality becomes linked with their successful predecessor, making the personality himself (or herself) linked to success.

5. What is in a name?

Naming places, days, streets, etc. after a leader is another sign of personality cult formation. This process puts the name of the personality forever in the thoughts of the masses and providing a constant public presence for the leader. When the personality has cities, squares, universities, public buildings, etc. named after him or her, it will most likely not be out of sight, out of mind.

6. Life after death

 Some cults survive well after the death of its personality. 

7. Erosion of institutions in favour of personalities

The last sign of personality cult formation also happens to be the consequence of a powerful personality cult. When the masses have more faith in an individual rather than the governmental institutions, the personality cult has solidified and the institutional weakness has become more apparent. The institutions have failed to provide basic needs for the citizens, as evidenced by our cases. The personality offers hope and a solution to the problems that the institutions fail to respond to. Stalin offered a New Economic Policy to protect the proletariat and Mao instated the Cultural Revolution. These acts overthrew the established institutions and gave the leaders (Stalin and Mao) more power. This is why personality cults are so important to politics. In this stage of personality cult formation, the personal authority of the individual exceeds the authority of the state or the government.

....These are six components of a personality cult. One does not need to see all six in order to establish the presence of a personality cult. In fact, the only truly necessary components needed to identify a personality cult are an unifying ideology, the image of the leader as an ideal type, media control, and the constant reminder of a leader in the lives of the people. Emulating a past heroic figure is also highly recommended but not strictly necessary. 

Interesting ideas, no?