Mob rule

For other uses, seeMob Rule (disambiguation).

A Tale of Two Cities, the mob in Paris dancingLa Carmagnole,by Fred Barnard.

Mob ruleorochlocracyormobocracyis apejorativeterm describing an oppressivemajoritarianform ofgovernmentcontrolled by the common people through theintimidationof more legitimate authorities. Ochlocracy is distinguished fromdemocracyor similarly legitimate and representative governments by the absence or impairment of a procedurally civil process reflective of the entire polity.

Names

Ochlocracy comes fromLatinochlocratia,fromGreekὀχλοκρατία(okhlokratía), fromὄχλος(ókhlos,"mass", "mob", or "common people" ) andκράτος(krátos,"rule" ).An ochlocrat is one who is an advocate or partisan of ochlocracy. The adjective may be either ochlocratic or ochlocratical.

Ochlocracy is synonymous in meaning and usage to mob rule ormobocracy,whichwas coinedin the 18th century from the sense of "mob" meaning the common rabble that arose from the Latin phrasemobile vulgus( "the ficklecrowd") in the 1680s during disputes over theUnited Kingdom'sGlorious Revolution.

Origin

Polybiusappears to have coined the term ochlocracy in his 2nd century BC workHistories(6.4.6).He uses it to name the "pathological" version of popular rule, in opposition to the good version, which he refers to as democracy. There are numerous mentions of the word "ochlos" in theTalmud,in which "ochlos" refers to anything from "mob", "populace", to "armed guard", as well as in the writings ofRashi,a Jewish commentator on the Bible. The word was first recorded in English in 1584, derived from theFrenchochlocratie(1568), which stems from the original Greekokhlokratia,fromokhlos( "mob" ) andkratos( "rule", "power", "strength" ).

Ancient Greek political thinkersregarded ochlocracy as one of the three "bad" forms of government (tyranny,oligarchy,and ochlocracy) as opposed to the three "good" forms of government:monarchy,aristocracy,anddemocracy.They distinguished "good" and "bad" according to whether the government form would act in the interest of the whole community ( "good" ) or in the exclusive interests of a group or individual at the expense of justice ( "bad" ).

Polibius' predecessor,Aristotle,distinguished between different forms of democracy, stating that those disregarding therule of lawdevolved into ochlocracy.Aristotle's teacher,Plato,considered democracy itself to be a degraded form of government and the term is absent from his work.

The threat of "mob rule" to a democracy is restrained by ensuring that the rule of law protectsminoritiesor individuals against short-termdemagogueryormoral panic.However, considering how laws in a democracy are established or repealed by the majority, the protection of minorities by rule of law is questionable. Some authors, like the Bosnian political theoretician Jasmin Hasanović, connect the emergence of ochlocracy in democratic societies with the decadence of democracy inneoliberalismin which "the democratic role of the people has been reduced mainly to the electoral process".

History

The mob attackingJoseph Foullon de Doué

African-Americanlynchedby white mob in Omaha, Nebraska, September 28, 1919, during the "Red Summer"

During the late 17th and the early 18th centuries, English life was very disorderly. Although theDuke of Monmouth's rising of 1685 was the last rebellion, there was scarcely a year in whichLondonor the provincial towns did not see aggrieved people breaking out into riots. InQueen Anne's reign (1702–14) the word "mob", first heard of not long before, came into general use. With no police force, there was little public order.Several decades later, the anti-CatholicGordon Riotsswept through London and claimed hundreds of lives; at the time, a proclamation painted on the wall of Newgate prison announced that the inmates had been freed by the authority of "His Majesty, King Mob".

TheSalem Witch Trialsincolonial Massachusettsduring the 1690s, in which the unified belief of the townspeople overpowered the logic of the law, also has been cited by one essayist as an example of mob rule.

In 1837,Abraham Lincolnwrote aboutlynchingand "the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country – the growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions in lieu of the sober judgment of courts, and the worse than savage mobs for the executive ministers of justice."

Mob violence played a prominent role in the early history of theLatter Day Saint movement.Examples include theexpulsions from Missouri,theHaun's Mill massacre,thedeath of Joseph Smith,theexpulsion from Nauvoo,the murder ofJoseph Standing,and theCane Creek Massacre.Inan 1857 speech,Brigham Younggave an address demanding military action against "mobocrats."

See also

• Anacyclosis
• Anarchism
• Argumentum ad populum
• Bandwagon effect
• Cancel culture
• Collective consciousness
• Collective effervescence
• Collective intelligence
• Collectivism and individualism
• Communal violence
• Consensus reality
• Criticism of democracy
• Crowd manipulation
• Crowd psychology
• Diffusion of responsibility
• Direct democracy
• Group dynamics
• Herd behavior
• Illiberal democracy
• Lynching
• Mass psychogenic illness
• Mobbing
• Peer pressure
• Populism
• Presumption of guilt
• Political demonstration
• Smart mob
• Social group
• Spiral of silence
• Tyranny of the majority
• Vigilantism
• Vox populi

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Libby, Ronald T. (2021),American Ochlocracy: Black Lives Matter & Mob Rule.Miami: Twelve Tables Publisher
• Mob Rule in New Orleans by Ida B. Wells-Barnett
• EtymologyOnLine

External links

• Quotations related toMob ruleat Wikiquote
• The dictionary definition ofmob ruleat Wiktionary