What is the power of the crowd?

"Okhlokratiya" is a term meaning the power of the crowd. This concept first appeared and gradually matured in the philosophy of ancient Greece. The term "power of the crowd" was akin to the meaning of the word "democracy".

Okhlokratiya - "wrong democracy"

To clarify the situation a bit, let's turn to the ideas of Plato. According to his teaching, there are three forms of government:

• monarchy;
• aristocracy;
• democracy.

Today every schoolboy knows that a democratic form of government is more just for society, but the best minds of antiquity had a slightly different point of view.

Forms of power in ancient times

In the modern theory of state and law, the monarchy is divided into constitutional, absolute, etc. But at the time of antiquity, it was divided into legitimate (led by the king) and violent, led by a tyrant. Hence the term "tyranny" arose. What, in fact, is identical in our understanding with absolutism.

Aristocracy is the power of a few. The true aristocracy is the dominion of the best people. And, according to the most intelligent enlighteners of antiquity, it is precisely the "correct" form of government that leads society to success. Another form is the oligarchy, or the power of the worst.

And finally, democracy was divided into lawful and lawless. The latter was called "ochlocracy", or violent, demagogic power. This is today ochlocracy - the power of the crowd. In antiquity - this is one form of government. Although then, as today, the term had a negative evaluation.

Aristotle on ochlocracy

According to Aristotle, ochlocracy is not just the power of the crowd, but the perverse manifestation of true democracy.

The thinker gives a concrete example from history, when the power of the crowd, or as he called it, "ordinary mob", negatively affects the economic and political situation of the policy. Lesson is the reign of Pericles in Athens. Modern history textbooks loudly call this period the heyday of democracy. But the cleverest people of that time had a different point of view. Removing the "best" people (modern interpretation of "professionals"), "ordinary mob" began to rule the country. Who specifically for what answered - chose the lot.

The consequences are natural: the complete collapse of economic and political development, the rise of arbitrariness and despotism. The result is one - the power of the crowd, or ochlocracy, as the highest manifestation of democracy is disastrous for the whole of society as a whole.

Examples of "destructive democracy"

You can understand the ancient scientists. Just imagine for a second that all positions in society are distributed through lots. For example, a person who has been engaged in repairing cars all his life, suddenly becomes the general director of the agricultural holding by chance. It is not difficult to guess that the probability of ruin of an economically developed enterprise is very high. Now it is understandable why the ancient scholars believed that democracy in its worst manifestation becomes an ochlocracy - let us recall, this is the term denoting the power of the crowd, or, in modern terms, the management of non-professionals.

That is why the aristocracy, in their opinion, is the best form of public administration, since they are headed by clever, knowledgeable professionals. For the sake of justice, many can cite a number of cases when successful parents left their multimillion-dollar enterprises to their children after death. Only a few of them continued their business well. The rest, as a rule, ruined or sold these enterprises due to lack of professionalism, inability to manage.

Examples of ochlocracy in Russia

Unfortunately, history lessons often remain forgotten. Let us recall the revolutionary events in Russia, when the power of the crowd took over in 1917. The army proved to be incapacitated, the economy began to fall apart, there was a famine that was not connected economically with the First World War. Disorder comes when people who do not know the basics of government, state power, stand at the head of the country.

What does the power of the crowd mean today? It is ochlocracy, which carries a deeper meaning. In modern political life, this form is manifested in times of crisis. During the years of revolutions, civil wars, during the transitional governments. Accordingly, today, ochlocracy, as in antiquity, has a negative character.

Signs of modern ochlocracy

• Variability of the political course, unpredictability, impulsiveness of political decisions, populism, utopian ideas.
• Sharp economic recession. The period of instability scares away capital and investors. Old industrial enterprises, as a rule, are closed, and businessmen just wait for better times and are looking for more tranquil countries.
• A sharp rise in the level of crime. Even large-scale military operations or civil war are possible. Anarchy always breeds violence and poverty.

• Short time of existence. People get tired of all this, therefore times of anarchy and arbitrariness, as a rule, very quickly end by the standards of human history. Of course, one can recall the protracted conflict during the Hundred Years' War, when the bloodshed lasted more than a hundred years. But this is a slightly different example, which illustrates the mores of the time rather than the political crisis in Europe.
• In addition to the 1917 revolution , similar events occurred repeatedly in our country. For example, it was manifested during the Time of Troubles in the early 17th century. The social explosion and the power of the crowd led to the fact that for almost 15 years the country plunged into the chaos of wars and revolutions.

The causes of ochlocracy

The power of the crowd is not just a spontaneous phenomenon that appears suddenly, like a thunderstorm in the middle of the blue. The manifestation of ochlocracy is associated with many factors. Very often it arises in the political crisis of the current government. People just do not believe it and take control in their own hands. Some are desperate, others are trying to take immediate advantage. But the result is always the same - the deterioration of the political, economic and social life of the state.

Ochlocracy after the collapse of the Union

This could be observed in Russia after the collapse of the USSR. Formally, the ochlocracy was to appear immediately, in the first years after the collapse, since the whole political system in the country collapsed completely, and another did not come to its place. But we must pay tribute to the strong political leader of that time - Boris N. Yeltsin. Indeed, the people are negatively responding today about it. Many mistakes were made afterwards. But the fact that the country did not get bogged down in a civil, international war across Russia is only his credit.

Seeing a strong leader in the early 90s of the last century, many abandoned the idea of an open confrontation with Moscow. But the subsequent actions of the authorities, inflation, unfair privatization, the absence of powerful law enforcement bodies led to anarchy. As already mentioned above, the power of the crowd is called ochlocracy. This concept was very clearly manifested at that time.

The distinctive properties of ochlocracy in Russia

The following can be distinguished:

• The growth of crime, crime. In the absence of political will and anarchy, the state replaced crime by taxing and taxing the whole economy of the country. People were not afraid to leave the tax services, but they really were afraid not to pay the so-called roof, crime. Civil responsibility, social justice did not bother entrepreneurs of that time. But they can be understood. When corruption does not even hide, when people do not believe that money goes to the treasury, then, naturally, few people will believe such power.
• Absence of pensions, salaries in the budgetary sphere, social benefits. It is not hard to guess what this leads to. People survived as they could.
• Care in the illegal business field. In the absence of levers of influence of fiscal and law enforcement agencies and open propaganda of corruption, this was not surprising.
• Litigation and "disassembly." Of course, very few people believed in honest courts. Everyone judged in proportion to his sense of justice. Often this led to a chain reaction and protracted local wars between citizens on the principle of military democracy "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

The crowd as a shallow manifestation of ochlocracy

The problem is that an uncontrolled crowd does not have specific goals. It is always spontaneous. She has no clear plans. What will be the next step, is solved momentarily. The fact that the power of the crowd is called anarchy is very well known to political technologists. The manifestation of ochlocracy in a small scale can be observed during spontaneous performances by football fans, for example, as well as during peaceful pickets and demonstrations. There is even a special term "provocateurs in the crowd". These are people who feel the "warming up" of the crowd and can effectively direct it into an aggressive channel.

Similar phenomena were observed at political rallies on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow. But the Ministry of Internal Affairs knew in advance about such provocateurs and blocked them on time. You can recall the pogrom of fans in 2002 in Moscow, when, after the defeat of the Russian national football team, thousands of people went to destroy and smash everything in their path. Today it is known that among them there were also special provocateurs who organized such a procession.

So, let's sum up: the power of the crowd is called ochlocracy, but in fact it is a very broad and multifaceted notion.