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  • Jay Ulfelder, Dart-Throwing Chimp

    Public-Health Campaigns as Outsized Threats to Authoritarian Rule

    August 17, 2011 By Wilson Center Staff
    The original version of this article, by Jay Ulfelder, appeared on his blog, Dart-Throwing Chimp.

    Are certain forms of popular activism more likely to hasten the fall of dictatorships than others? This question occurred to me after reading a recent Washington Post story describing how one Russian woman, Darya Makarova, has turned her own frustration with the poor health care given to her (now dead) young son into a wider campaign that’s has caught Moscow’s eye:
    Thousands have turned out for her rallies, written letters, signed petitions or joined in Internet forums. Since Maxim’s death in November, she has raised money to reopen a children’s clinic, with an emergency room, in her community. She has shamed the city into buying three new ambulances, with proper equipment. She has launched a nonprofit organization, Health Care for Children, that has national ambitions. Politicians have sought her out. Pavel Astakhov, who holds the newly created title of children’s ombudsman, came from Moscow to see her – and then appointed her his unpaid deputy, giving her more access and clout. Even officials from the sprawling and notoriously indifferent Health Ministry started to pay attention.
    I can see why government officials would be nervous about this still-modest and outwardly apolitical campaign. Popular activism around matters of public health and safety seems like it should pose a special challenge to authoritarian regimes, like Russia’s, that stake their right to rule on paternalistic claims about their ability to deliver both social welfare and social protection.

    Movements organized around failures of public health and safety are threatening to these regimes because they call out the paternalistic state for failing at its own game. Whatever the form of government involved, one of the modern state’s fundamental roles is to protect its citizens from public health threats. Even when they serve this function poorly, most autocrats claim to be trying, and these campaigns reveal that they are not succeeding.

    Continue reading on Dart-Throwing Chimp.

    Photo credit: “Your Health rests with…,” courtesy of flickr user okeos.
    Topics: China, environmental health, global health, livelihoods, Russia, security
    • Human Geo Dan

      Its reassuring to hear that even in the more repressive states, a single purpose-driven citizen can bring about positive change. Similar individuals have helped change labor laws, forced health regulations, and made enormous impacts on people's health here in the United States. Progressive movements and the people that foster them are always a threat to authoritarian regimes, but once they are entrenched it is almost impossible to reverse their impacts. Ultimately, activism with popular support protects the environment, promotes (as we see in this article) better healthcare, and works to the betterment of society.

    • Noljack

      I agree, the claim that individuals can be the catalyst for change has been proven throughout history – both in a positive and negative manner.  Not all public based movements are good; especially if the program of change creates an even more ill got state.  I think the real neat thing to look at in these cases is how ignored and forgotten must a cause seem in order to inspire action and initiative?

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