THE SILENT CONTRACT

The strongmen govern through strength, not through rules. But what do the politics of strength look like? Why strength? On the whole, European states, which are based on rules, function like well-oiled machines. Their bureaucracies are vast and capable of reaching into the smallest pockets of society. There are rules for the tiniest minutiae of our lives: from the emission levels of diesel cars, to urban planning laws, to the percentage of cacao in chocolate bars. What do we need strength for?

The strongman's answer is that government is not always an efficient and reliable machine. Institutions of government can break or lose their relevance. Great civilizations and states view themselves as eternal. They place themselves at the centre of the world and blindly assume they will remain there forever. But Machiavelli's warning is that they are wrong. If we take the long view, the greatest challenge of order is its evanescence. States are vulnerable to crises, to wear and tear and decay. And when institutions are weak, dysfunctional or at risk, the politics of strength takes over. Formally, rules and constitutions may still exist. A machinery of government may still exist, on paper. But if these structures no longer possess political agency, the ability to govern or change things, strength provides an answer.

One of the sources for the politics of strength is what I call the “silent contract”, an informal and covert bargain between the strongman and an elite of powerbrokers recruited by the strongman to help manage the nation's public affairs. It is this band of helpers that, in part, gives the strongman his power, his ability to create and lead an often highly effective system of government in the shadow of the state. And as I will argue in this chapter, the character of this shadow system of government, and the personal and informal ties that hold it together, can be best understood as the ancient principles of feudalism and the obligations between a lord and his vassals.