Star Wars Meta: The Dictator's Playbook

[redrikki]

PBS has a new show called The Dictator's Playbook, which looks at a bunch of real world dictators and analysis their rise to power. Watching it, one of the things that struck me is that most (successful) dictators do something which benefit's the masses immediately upon taking power as a means of gaining their support. Kim Il-Sung implemented land reforms which gave peasants their own farms for the first time in ever. Saddam Hussain granted equal rights for women and used oil money for infrastructure projects, free universal health care, and free universal education. Mussolini made the trains run on time. It got me thinking. What, exactly, did Palpatine and the Empire do to cement the loyalty of the masses?


1. Bringing Order

The Clone Wars created chaos. With the Republic security forces tied up fighting Separatists, criminal gangs were allowed to flourish. With the end of the war, Palpatine could turn his clone army (and later volunteer army) on the gangs terrorizing the Outer Rim. One of the main reasons Dr. Aphra supports the Empire is because they rescued her after gangsters murdered her mom and she believes they are the only thing protecting the galaxy from utter chaos.

2. Protecting People From Planetary Leaders

The word democracy got tossed around a lot in the old Republic, but very few planets were actually democratic at all. Most worlds were either ruled by hereditary royalty (Alderaan, Onderon, Mon Cala, Toydaria, Shu-Torun, etc.) or an aristocracy (Mandalor, Raada, etc.) Some of these rulers believed in noblesse oblige like House Organa, but some exploited the shit out of their people. In the new Star Wars comics, Sergeant Krell supports the Empire because they came to his home planet of Chagar IX and overthrew the planetary rulers who had been forcing the citizens to fight for their amusement.

3. Opportunities For Upward Mobility

In a galaxy with hereditary nobility, there are few opportunities for advancement, but, under the Empire, talented commoners could go far. People could join the military and advance through the ranks. That's what Ciena Ree (a peasant from the Outer Rim), Rae Sloane (a poor girl from Ganthel), and Firmus Piett (a kid from the Outer Rim), did. Even Luke tried to get in on that sweet escaping-from-grinding-poverty action by applying to the Imperial academy. Talented civilians could rise too. The Empire was interested in milking every last ounce of efficiency from its holdings. Lemuel Tharsa (aka Denetrius Vidian) was able to become a Count because he was so good at that.

Those are some canonical examples from the text. What else do you think they might have done to gain the support of the masses? How effective do you think this was at winning folks over?

Comments

[rose_griffes]

I rewatched the prequel trilogy with a new young college-age fan (I accidentally introduced her to Star Wars - it's a long story), and it was... very different, watching the prequels in the current political climate.

Anyway, Palpatine was good at manipulation on a small and galaxy scale.

[redrikki]

Do you mean because Trump=Palpatine?

Looking back, it's clear that the films at the time were intended as a political allegory/warning. I was in late high school/early college. 9/11 had just happened and America was rushing into wars and selling out its morals (more so than usual) in the name of national security. I think George looked at the situation and thought "this is where this could end up." The fact that we have a president currently who very much wishes he could be a dictator just makes him seem that much more prescient.

[rose_griffes]

Yes, the way that Trump behaves is what made the prequels feel very different this time around. But I would agree that Lucas was mixing politics into the films in pretty deliberate ways back then, even if it didn't seem as pointed. Prescient, indeed.

[trickytricky]

I think a big, often overlooked factor right at the beginning of Palpatine’s formation of the Empire was his genocide of the Jedi. It was such a decisive, utterly ruthless move, there’s no doubt it quelled a lot of potential dissent right off the bat. You see it with Senator Organa when he witnessed that child at the Temple being shot down by the clone troopers right in front of him. Seeing that left an indelible impression that shaped how he reacted to the Empire from that moment forward. For those relatively few folks (on a galactic scale) who would have been sympathetic towards the Jedi, who had actually had interactions with them and knew how unlikely Palpatine’s story really was, that terrible night of slaughter would have made them strongly inclined to remain silent and keep their heads down in the face of the Empire’s decrees, even if they weren’t exactly ‘won over’. After all, if Palpatine was willing to send in the clone army to coldly murder every last Jedi, down to the last child, where would he stop? Their own families clearly wouldn’t be safe if they stepped out of line.

Then on the other hand, for the majority of the Republic who never had a chance to interact with a Jedi up close and personal, it would have been easy for Palpatine to push that ‘outsider’, ‘alien’, ‘Look-over-there! Those-people-who-are-different-are-the-reason-why-your-life-is-not-better’ button that we see unethical politicians use so effectively over and over again. Palpatine would be able to sell himself as the epitome of the straight-talking, man-of-the-people leader, who saved the populace not only from the war, but also from the evils of those scary (widely misunderstood) Jedi, those creepy, ultra-rare, Force-users. He had already laid the groundwork to de-humanize the Jedi throughout the war and set everything up to make them the ‘outsider enemy’ to focus the people’s hatred and fear against right at the dawning moment of the Empire. He later keeps playing that very same card against various alien species such as the Wookiees, continuing to milk that gambit over and over. When the majority in population and power isn’t negatively affected by these tactics, history has shown a tragic willingness to eat that right up and continue supporting said dictator. People find it appealing that life’s ills can be blamed on some ‘others’ from outside their own tribe, that life really is that simple, that by removing those who get pointed out as the ‘enemy’, their lives will be made better.

[redrikki]

You are so right about the importance of the Jedi massacre. According to The Dictator's Playbook, an early crackdown against dangerous elites and potential rivals is instrumental in consolidating power and sewing fear. Saddam Hussein purged his party first thing and had his targets publicly hung before crowds of thousands. Same basic idea, same basic effect.

Having an enemy is vitally important for dictators. They always need someone to protect the people from so they can play the savior. Like, yeah, they're terrifying, but just think how much worse it would be under those savage aliens, mind-controlling Jedi, vicious rebels, etc.

[ljwrites]

The bringing order part was a HUGE incentive for people who genuinely believed in the Empire, like Iden Versio. It was only when the Empire turned on its own people--the "good" people, that is, loyal Imperial subjects who were supposed to be protected--that Iden finally turned against it. She rationalized Alderaan, Jedha, the subjugation of multiple alien species, but her own loyal home planet being destroyed was the last straw.

[redrikki]

That seems to be a pretty consistent thing in real world dictatorships too. Once it becomes too terrifying or destructive to tolerate, then people rebel. As long as the victims are someone else, it can be rationalized.