Abstract
The authority to lead does not necessarily accrue to those with power. Nowhere is this proposition more evident than among nation-states ruled by communist parties. The drama with which such distinctions became evident in Poland, culminating in 1980–81, bears witness to the dilemma communist parties face as they seek the authority to lead rather than just the power to rule. The former is sought, of course, because it is more efficient to govern when most citizens obey willingly, and best when some are enthusiastic supporters of those who govern and their policies.
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Notes
A ‘state of war’ against a regime’s own population requires an immense and unproductive mobilization of resources that drains all segments of society and economy, worsening rather than solving most fundamental dilemmas. Regarding the impact of martial law on Poland’s economic crisis, for instance, see Zbigniew Fallenbuchl, ‘Poland’s Economic Crisis’, Problems of Communism (Mar.–Apr. 1982) esp. pp. 17–21. If such raw usage of power is seen to be arbitrary and chaotic, it will produce terror, which cannot build legitimacy. The potential to reinforce, via systematized fear, a sense of coercive discipline and control is another matter.
R. M. MacIver, The Web of Government (New York: Free Press, 1965) p. 63.
Gabriel Almond and G. Bingham Powell, Comparative Politics: System, Process, Policy, 2nd ed (Boston: Little, Brown, 1978) p. 30.
Stefan Nowak, ‘Values and Attitudes of the Polish People’, Scientific American, vol. 245, no. 1 (July 1981) pp. 52–3.
See James P. McGregor’s summary of public opinion data regarding attitudes toward socialism in ‘Polish Public Moods in a Time of Crisis’, Comparative Politics, 17, 3 (Oct. 1984).
The attribution of dissatisfaction to ‘the authorities’ in Poland, and in state socialist systems generally, is discussed in Kenneth M. Coleman and Daniel N. Nelson, ‘State Capitalism, State Socialism and the Politicization of Workers’, Carl Beck Monograph Series, #304 (Pittsburgh: Center for International Studies, 1984).
This matter of a leader’s legitimacy being linked to a party regime is discussed further by Carl J. Friedrich and Zbigniew K. Brzezinski, Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy (New York: Praeger, 1965) p. 77.
Milovan Djilas, The New Class (New York: Praeger, 1957).
Felipe Garcia Casals, The Syncretic Society (White Plains, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1980).
Arthur L. Stinchcombe, Constructing Social Theories (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968) pp. 160–2 as cited by Bialer, p. 194.
The conclusions offered by Robert Weissberg, Public Opinion and Popular Government (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1976) are indicative of the difficulty in finding empirical support for the ‘congruence’ of policy and opinion in the American case. See 137.
James D. Seymour, China: The Politics of Revolutionary Reintegration (New York: Crowell, 1976) p. 147.
Max Weber, The Theory of Social and Economic Organization, translated A. M. Henderson and Talcot Parsons (New York: Free Press, 1964) p. 66.
V. I. Lenin, State and Revolution (New York: International Publishers, 1968) p. 75.
Teresa Rakowska-Harmstone, ‘Toward a Theory of Soviet Leadership Maintenance’ in Paul Cocks et al. (eds), The Dynamics of Soviet Politics (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976) pp. 53–4.
Edward Feit, The Armed Bureaucrats (Boston: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1972) p. 172.
Mary Ellen Fischer, ‘Idol or Leader? The Origins and Future of the Ceausescu Cult’ in Daniel N. Nelson (ed.), Romania in the 1980s (Boulder: Westview, 1981) p. 118.
Two examples of empirical studies that demonstrate such a trend are Daniel N. Nelson, ‘Background Characteristics of Local Communist Elites: Change vs. Continuity in the Romanian Case’, Polity, vol. 3 (Spring 1978) pp. 398–415
and Jerry F. Hough, Soviet Leadership in Transition (Washington, D.C.: Brookings, 1980) pp. 57–60.
Murray Edelman, The Symbolic Uses of Politics (Chicago: Markham Press, 1971) p. 90.
Seymour Martin Lipset, Political Man (New York: Anchor, 1960) p. 64.
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (Cleveland: Meridian, 1958) p. 461.
Erik Erikson, ‘Wholeness and Totality: A Psychiatric Contribution’ in Carl J. Friedrich (ed.), Totalitarianism (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1954) pp. 164–5.
Ibid. Erich Fromm’s Escape From Freedom (New York: Avon Books, 1965), originally published in 1941, offers the most well known formulation of such a thesis. See, especially, pp. 163–201 where he addresses the appeal of ‘authoritarianism’. Fromm hypothesizes that an individual’s ‘unbearable feeling of aloneness and powerlessness’ creates a need to surrender his freedom; ‘the frightened individual seeks somebody or something to tie his self to’ (p. 173).
Lena Kolarska-Bobinska, ‘Lad spoleczny—Jaki?’ Zycie Gospodardze 10 May 1981, as reported in James P. McGregor, ‘Polish Public Moods in a Time of Crisis’, op. cit. Similarly, Bulgarian local party chairmen thought that the ‘most important qualities’ of people in their posts are, in first and second place, ‘will and firmness’ (33.9%) and to be ‘demanding and exacting’ (27.7%).
See William A. Welsh, ‘Bulgaria’ in William A. Welsh (ed.), Survey Research and Public Attitudes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union (New York: Pergamon, 1981), p. 1980.
Populist’ is used here as denoted in Lester Seligman, (‘Leadership’ in David L. Shils (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, vol. 9 (New York: Free Press, 1968) p. 107. The term connotes a leader who identifies with the masses above ‘politics and particular interests’.
An excellent analysis of the Cuban case with such a subtitle is Edward Gonzalez, Cuba Under Castro: the Limits of Charisma (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1974) esp. pp. 218–36.
Robert Wesson discussed the erosion of belief in communist systems in his book Aging of Communism (New York: Praeger, 1980).
See T. H. Rigby’s article ‘Stalinism and the Mono-Organizational Society’ in Robert C. Tucker (ed.), Stalinism (New York: Norton, 1977) pp. 65–71. Rigby’s views on the demise of oligarchy and the rise of a cult are corroborated by Leszek Kolakowski’s ‘Marxist Roots of Stalinism’, in the same volume. He uses the term ‘autocracy’ with which to refer to Stalin (p. 288).
Zbigniew Brzezinski, ‘The Soviet Political System: Transformation or Degeneration’, Problems of Communism, (Jan.—Feb. 1966) p. 4.
V. O. Key, Jr. Public Opinion and American Democracy (New York: Knopf, 1961) p. 412.
Alec Nove, Stalinism and After (London: Allen & Unwin, 1975) p. 155. In Nove’s view, Khrushchev’s record as a wilful, crude, undignified, unpredictable muddler led to the oligarchy acting against him. The leadership strategy within the ruling clique was, in those ways, being undermined by Khrushchev’s populist attempts. On Khrushchev’s ‘populism’ see the arguments of George
W. Breslauer, Khrushchev and Brezhnev as Leaders (London: Allen & Unwin, 1982) pp. 52–7.
Regarding the effort to inaugurate an independent trade union movement in Romania, see Radio Free Europe, Situation Report: Romania (Munich), (19 Mar. 1979) pp.18–22. An example of the repression of intellectuals is the case of history professor, Dr Vlad Georgescu. See the vicious attack on him entitled ‘Lepadatura’, written by Gh. I. Ionita in Flacara XXIX, No. 37 (11 Sept. 1980) p. 11.
Daniel N. Nelson, ‘Socio-economic and Political Change in Communist Europe’, International Studies Quarterly (June 1977) pp. 359–88.
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© 1988 Daniel N. Nelson
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Nelson, D.N. (1988). Charisma, Control and Coercion: the Dilemma of Leadership. In: Elite-Mass Relations in Communist Systems. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09104-1_5
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