How Autocratic Leaders Maintain Control An authoritarian is defined as someone who has complete or almost complete control over one or more people (Merriam-Webster). George Orwell's novel, Animal Farm, is a story in which a group of animals is able to rise to power over all the other animals. Similar to how Joseph Stalin and many other authoritarians and dictators around the world have throughout history and during the present time. They are able to control an entire nation of people and animals, who have different opinions and values. The one question is how? What methods can we take away from history and Animal Farm in order to know how autocratic leaders maintain control? Other than the dogs and the threat of violence, autocratic leaders …show more content…
The first step to maintaining control is to make sure that the other animals are educated on a very basic level, but aren't too smart to overrule the government. Napoleon is able to control the other animals by spreading an educational campaign throughout the farm and by using Squealer as a form of propaganda. Once the pigs teach themselves how to read and write perfectly, they are able to gain power and rise to the top because of their intelligence over the other animals. Just like in the Russian Revolution, the pigs start up a controlled educational campaign where they try to teach the animal farms the alphabet and how to read. The educational system in Animal Farm is controlled because although the pigs could fully teach the other animals how to read and write, they only teach them a limited amount so that they will not think for themselves and revolt against the pigs. With this intelligence, the animals can realize that the seven commandments are being changed and that they are being lied to by Napoleon and the information/ propaganda that Squealer is spreading in the farm. For instance, when Clover in Animal Farm thinks that she remembers there being a rule