Politicization of Society
When the political-party identity of people (which party you support) become an important identity in society and people are essentially forced to support the dominant political party for getting basic amenities and opportunities, I call it politicization of society. The definition is admittedly vague but examples provided later on will hopefully clarify what I mean.
Politicization of society can happen in two main ways.
One is the ‘explicit way’, whereby the party in power demands that you are loyal to the party, explicitly, to live properly in society. So, people have to perform various signalling functions to show their support for the governing party, in the form of buying party membership and going to polls even when only one candidate is on the ballot (hence, a sham election). You might get away with being indifferent or neutral, but in order to get better ‘opportunities’ like government jobs, you must be a party member. If you dare to explicitly or implicitly express your opposition, you will be punished and in some cases, made an example out of so that no one else dares to voice their dissent. As examples, you can think of pretty much any authoritarian government, such as North Korea (extreme example); many African dictators like Mobutu Sese Seko who ruled Zaire; Syria where the Baath party has been ruling since 1970s; and to some extent China (where you can only be member of one party).
The other is the ‘implicit way’, whereby people live in seemingly ‘democratic societies’ with the governing (and dominant) party and the existence of other political parties. People do not have to publicly affirm their support for the governing party to live properly in society. So, even if you do not support the dominant party explicitly, you can still get by doing your business, attaining basic government services, etc. But, in almost all aspects of society which is controlled by the government (for instance- government jobs, government contracts), supporting the political party becomes a necessity if you want to climb up the ladder. For example, if you are an officer in the military, you need to express party support or have party affiliation to get promoted to higher ranks. In government services, you need to signal party loyalty for promotion as well. But the same ‘requirement’ applies even if you want to become a government employee. Often, the expression of support required might not be explicit like asking someone which party he votes for, but through indirect signalling like asking what they think about a certain policy, or what they think about the current prime minister. In the modern age, where governments can monitor social media posts and even record phone calls, they can obtain crucial information about someone’s political views pretty easily. Hence, the governing party divides the entire population in two simple groups- you are either for us or against us.
This implicit way is as dangerous, if not more, than the explicit way; because it is hard to raise concerns over it through raising explicit evidence, but everyone in that society knows that it (politicization) is happening. Gradually, people feel increasingly compelled to express their support for the governing party in direct and indirect ways. We (‘people’) care much more about our day-to-day activities than political parties per se, if most of the things are running comparatively smoothly. Arguably, most people do not really care who is in power, as long as they are not harmed by the governing party. This is especially true for societies where corruption is rampant and people grow to expect corrupt governments and poor services. This results into deep antipathy towards politics in society. As a result, people equate almost all political parties as comparatively corrupt and ‘power-hungry’. They see ‘politicization of society’ as ‘normal’ and/or inevitable. Hence, people do not worry about such politicization.
Rather, most people naturally try to take advantage of the system, to get ahead. In the competitive society we live in, our impulse to get ahead, get promotion, earn more, get a coveted job triumphs our concern about politicization of society. And thus, the society is gradually, although implicitly, transformed into a society where supporting the dominant political party becomes almost a necessity. Because, to get ahead, you need the support of the government. If you oppose the governing party, you probably won’t be punished as harshly initially (like killing you or putting you to jail). But you will be deprived of many opportunities and promotions. At times, if you are in a powerful position, such as newspaper editor, and you voice opposition to the party or politicization or any policy proposed by the party; the party through the means of the government can act against you with force, accusing you of ‘crimes’, damaging your reputation, taking away your job or sometimes even putting you in jail. The governing party, using all means, will try to make sure that influential positions in society are filled by party loyalists.
Why should you care?
We have to be careful about the politicization of society because it suppresses debate and dissent. Having basic freedoms such as freedom of speech to voice dissent is important in a democracy because democracy is supposed to function through debate and dialogue. The strength of democracy is in people’s participation, it is in debate whereby proposed policies can be debated and revised.
Politicization of society also makes a mockery of ‘democracy’, where political opinion of people should not determine the opportunities they have. Everyone in the society, regardless of their political opinion, are entitled to equal opportunities. Society also suffers because people are placed in important positions not because they are the most qualified people, but because they are party supporters. Hence, quality of service eventually declines. It can cause ‘brain drain’ as well, as talented individuals choose to go abroad where their work will be evaluated in their merit, not by their political opinion. Even for the people who live in the society, talented people might avoid government jobs because they do not want to get involved with politics and/or they feel they won’t be rewarded for their good work if they do not become party supporters.
Sometimes, the situation can even get worse. When the dominant party observes that they got away with politicizing the society and many people actually support them (be it willingly or not), the dominant party is further encouraged to take it to next level. They may become semi-autocratic, cracking down against opposition parties, barring opposition leaders from elections, etc; and thus, slowly turn to an autocratic state. When parties stay in power for a while, often “staying in power for power’s sake” becomes very important, given that the party engaged in lot of immoral and corrupt activities. The party officials know, once they are out of power, there is a high chance they will be prosecuted for their past actions. Hence, holding onto power is the only way forward for them.
What should we expect from general people who live in such politicized societies? Should we expect them to be herculean warriors of morality and justice, who defy human impulse of opportunism to stand against such politicization, and give up opportunities, or sometimes even face worse outcomes?
But who are we to tell them that they should not care about getting a promotion, about earning a bit more to make like comfortable for their family? After all, supporting a political party for whatever reason is not illegal. Moreover, they see other people around them getting ahead taking advantage of the system; why should they deprive themselves of such opportunities?
It is more difficult to sacrifice personal ambitions for society’s sake, than to write about such moral defiance. The act of taking a moral stand in daily activities at personal cost, is almost never recognized at the macro-level. Furthermore, the successful end result of such resistance is a ‘common good’ (no matter if you participated in the resistance or not, you can enjoy the benefits of living in a non-politicized society). Hence, we all want to ‘free ride’ i.e. we want others to sacrifice, but we are unwilling to bear personal costs ourselves. Hence, we arrive at the classic scenario of ‘Tragedy of the Commons’.
