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allodial
03-15-16, 12:44 AM
Ochlocracy (wikipedia)

Ochlocracy (Greek: ...okhlokratía; Latin: ochlocratia) or mob rule is the rule of government by mob or a mass of people, or, the intimidation of legitimate authorities. As a pejorative for majoritarianism, it is akin to the Latin phrase mobile vulgus meaning "the fickle crowd", from which the English term "mob" originally was derived in the 1680s.

Ochlocracy ("rule of the general populace") is democracy ("rule of the people") spoiled by demagoguery, "tyranny of the majority", and the rule of passion over reason, just as oligarchy ("rule of a few") is aristocracy ("rule of the best") spoiled by corruption, and tyranny is monarchy spoiled by lack of virtue. Ochlocracy is synonymous in meaning and usage to the modern, informal term "mobocracy", which emerged from a much more recent colloquial etymology.

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Mobs Used to Affect Policy
The modern theories of civil disobedience and satyagraha may be differentiated from "mob rule" and its mechanics, as these approaches forego the use of violence and force that the mob of ancient times employed.

Traditional non-violent protest theory holds that if the demonstrators are restrained and do not do any violence, yet refuse to back down, then they conceivably could win, as they either will be joined by the forces they face, be allowed to defy the law or government openly and peacefully, or be physically attacked, struck down, and made into powerful moral symbols of the lengths to which the agents of the state will go to enforce its laws.[5] Police forces around the world now have become adept at making such gatherings irrelevant, however, by limiting them to areas—in some cases dubbed "free speech zones", sufficiently separate from the object of their discontent, the rest of the public, and the media, to making them easily ignored. Permitting requirements in many jurisdictions effectively make demonstrations without advance police permission illegal. Various efforts to increase communal intelligence and mobility of demonstrators, using cell phone networks and bicycles have been employed to circumvent crowd control and marginalizing techniques. Flash mobs and critical-mass style "bike block" actions are examples experimented with, with mixed results, notably during the 2004 Republican National Convention.

Modern theory concludes that since Roman guards, facing crucifixion for disobedience, could be swayed by mobs, it also is possible to sway modern police, even in a police state. The 1986 EDSA Revolution in the Philippines, the Velvet Revolution in former Czechoslovakia, and the resistance to the attempted military coup in the Soviet Union in 1991 that led to the dissolution of that state, are situations where it is possible that it was the mob that won the day, due to defections by authority.[5] The use of political pressure put on by a large amassed group of people also was demonstrated frequently in the Arab Spring, which contributed to swift political change in countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya.

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In "atheist" Communism/Marxist-Leninism the Mob or the controllers of the Mob replace divine authority: the oligarchy that controls the citizenry would take the place of the very same divine authority which the oligarchy denied.

Related:

Opposition to Mob-Rule. Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois - Writings of Abraham Lincoln
(http://www.classicreader.com/book/3237/12/)Tyranny of the Majority (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_the_majority)
Republic vs. Democracy - Rule by Law vs. Rule by Majority (http://www.whatourforefathersthought.com/DemoRep.html)
Majoritarianism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majoritarianism)
Dulocracy (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dulocracy)

shikamaru
03-19-16, 12:19 AM
I pretty much consider most governments to be some form of tyranny by the minority i.e. monarchy, oligarchy, aristocracy, plutocracy, et al.

I would include republicanism in the above.