One part of yesterday’s No Kings “what’s next?” call was a presentation by Maria Stephan, from the Horizons Project, about “pillars of support for authoritarianism.” It seemed like a useful paradigm to me, so below is my transcript of parts of that presentation.
(You can view Stephan’s presentation on YouTube; it’s about 10 minutes long, starting around 31:35.)
Mass protests like these are incredibly powerful. They build a sense of unity, solidarity, and connection. They show that lots of people from diverse parts of society are fed up with the status quo.
They shift social norms about what is acceptable and what isn't, and they create the social permission for groups to stop complying with the authoritarian status quo.
[…]
A regime is supported by civil service, police, media, business, and military.
[These are] the pillars of support for authoritarianism. These are the organizations and institutions that provide autocrats with the social, political, and economic power they need to wield control.
[The pillars can include] businesses, religious organizations, bureaucracies, unions, professional associations, media outlets, police and military.
All of these pillars, whose skills, resources, and power autocrats rely on—we need to get these pillars to stop complying with authoritarian regimes. That’s key to the success of our pro-democracy movement.
[…]
But of course, these pillars are not monolithic. They are made up of people with different identities, interests, and loyalties.
[For example,] the business pillar [includes CEOs,] investors, workers, consumers.
So [it’s useful to understand] where people within key pillars fall. Are they actively or passively supporting authoritarian practices? Are they on the fence? Are they on our side? So understanding this is key to designing campaigns whose goal it is to shift their incentives.
Now, the Freedom Trainers group that Ash and I are part of are very focused on developing the skills for how to move and pressure these pillars. To […] pull them away from supporting authoritarian regimes and towards supporting our pro-democracy movement.
But just to say, it’s not [only] protests that move people within these pillars.
We know from the research that basic organizing and outreach to members of these pillars is key to getting them to shift their loyalties. […] and we know that targeted pressure on these pillars can be very effective.
