Cargo cult democracies

The world is in the midst of an interesting transition. More and more nations are becoming what can be described as “cargo cult” democracies. This is a nation ruled by an authoritarian government, which has come to power via electoral processes. Such authoritarian governments maintain the forms of democracy, while ignoring the underlying principles, and corrupting the institutions which are supposed to prevent abuse.

Cargo cults are interesting constructs. During World War II, as the US fought Japan across the Pacific Ocean, both sides built military bases on many islands.  The islanders were subsistence-level fishermen. They were co-opted as labour to clear jungles, do construction, and so on.

The islanders enjoyed a sudden burst of prosperity during the war. They were exposed to 20th century technology like electricity, motorboats, radio, machined textiles, medicines and canned food. They saw goodies flown in by planes landing on airstrips they had built.
 

As the war moved on and ended, the bases were abandoned. The islanders hankered for a return to the days of plenty. They had no clue about geopolitical conflict or technology. Many assumed the military rituals they had seen were responsible for the technological marvels.

So, they mimicked the soldiers, wearing cast-off uniforms, marching with wooden replica rifles and waving signal flags. They carved wooden earphones and muttered mumbo-jumbo. They built replica planes and left offerings in the cockpits. They constructed new airstrips and set up shrines in mock conning towers. By imitation of military ritual, the cultists hoped to attract new planes with cargo. Of course, as with all cults, the leading lights were scamsters, who made fortunes lying to followers.

The cargo cult democracy is a political system that imitates the forms and rituals of democracies. There are elections; legislatures pass laws; judges give decrees. However, the foundation of democracy — that individuals have fundamental rights — are ignored.
 

Unlike the classic 20th century dictator, the 21st century authoritarian maintains th­e twin fig-leafs of elections, and the rule of law. The electoral system is perverted to en­sure the authoritarian retains power. Th­o­­­se who might vote against this are ex­c­l­u­d­­­ed, or disenfranchised, in some clever way.  

The laws are twisted to ensure individuals of certain communities are favoured, due to the lucky accident of birth. This creates a loyal vote bank. The justice system is manipulated. Laws are applied selectively to punish only those the regime dislikes. Corrupt judges are appointed to give verdicts favouring the authoritarians.  

As with cargo cults themselves, the cargo cult political parties are run by charismatic scamsters. To state a truism, all politicians lie some of the time, but authoritarians lie on a larger scale, and more often than normal politicians.

The 21st century authoritarian is a technological creature, using tech to create mass surveillance systems, and to generate blanket propaganda and misinformation. They have generally come to power by campaigning on nationalistic, racist, communal planks. They usually sweeten the racist pill with absurd promises of prosperity in some dim-distant future.

This edifice is always propped up by crony capitalists. This part of the playbook harks back to the classic 20th century formula. As any businessperson knows, it is easier to deal with an authoritarian government because fewer people need to be bribed. A corporate entity favoured by an authoritarian regime will be able to rewrite policy to boost its bottomline.
 

The corruption is much more sophisticated and the money-laundering better organised than in the 20th century. Laws are reformulated to make donations to political fronts easy and anonymous. Ins­tead of stashing vast sums in personal numbered accounts, the authoritarians set up corporate entities to absorb payments and move electronic money around as they please.

The Pacific cargo cults died out only when the islanders became sophisticated en­o­ugh to realise they were being taken for a collective ride and that the good times wo­uld not magically return. That took years an­d better educational standards. Cargo cu­lt democracies will evolve into somethi­n­g less toxic only when the penny drops for enough voters. This process can be re­t­a­­rded indefinitely if independent educati­o­nal institutions are emasculated and crippled.