The Faction Theory of Government

There are various theories of government, about what makes a good government or how a government works or about when it is appropriate to change a government, and so forth.  In this post we discuss the "Faction Theory of Government" but remember all models are wrong but some models are useful.

The "Faction Theory of Government"  models government as a variety of factions, one or more of which seize control or partial control, and attempt to deliver for their constituents policies that hold to key shared values. Most if not all factions claim to represent the will of the people, or the great traditions of the roman republic, or the proletariat, or the white christian way of life given that jesus is going to be here soon, or the way of the Huron of the Great Lakes, or whatever, and sometimes they do, at least the way they see things. But at the end of the day, if the people who are supporting a faction believe that their leaders are not delivering what they have said they will deliver, then change is in the air. For example, if it is the duty of the leaders to put on the war paint, grab the sacred spear, and lead the wolf clan in a war against the hated ancient enemy, kill their men, steal and rape their women, and give the holy offering of the screaming sacrificial victims to the greatest of all gods, Baal Optimus Maximus, then that is what those who would lead must do.  But those leaders that fail the Gods will endanger "rta", the order of the universe.  Then another faction will rise up and lead the people on the path of righteousness.  The Republicans understand this very well, but the Democrats not so much. To choose another example, "The British give me 20 gold guineas a month, but I myself am poor, because I am a river to my people!" but of course Anthony Quinn was not telling the whole truth here, but he was telling some of the truth and delivering, monthly, a lot of british gold to his vassals.

Of course this is a very brief description of a nuance-filled theory of government. It is not about good or bad in some objective sense, it is about whether a faction is serving its constituency sufficiently that they can retain power. In some cases it may be that all that is required is sincerity of purpose, but generally factions need to achieve results as those results are defined by that community the faction claims to represent. No faction is perfect. But some leaders seem to get complaisant and think that the rules do not apply to them and then it is proper and correct for them to experience the "threefold death" and a new god king, or faction, to arise.

There are many examples from the last 2500 years or so of western history that can illuminate this model.  I think it works pretty well.

 

The factions contend for the honor of leading the people!