Sacralized politics yields a self-sustaining power structure resistant to change

Evidence

Sacralization operates politically through numerous modes. To trace the matrix of power that sacralization of politics mobilizes, and when looking comparatively at the various case studies examined in this volume, we point to three main (among other) modes of sacralization’s profound impact on politics. The first operates through managing consciousness, including the construction of self-identity in relation to others; the second, through territoriality and the politics of land; and the third via political governance, using violence and a necropolitical regime of control. While each mode can operate separately, all operate through mutual reinforcement and each with elements of sacredness, resulting in an emergent power structure that is self-sustaining and resistant to change. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 108

Categorization

• XREF: The claim that mutually reinforcing sacralization modes create an emergent, change-resistant structure speaks directly to the reader’s question about whether correction against sacralized belief backfires. — connects to: Sacralized politics occurs in democracies too, giving constitutions and founders scripture-like status — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 82; Power holders resist social change that threatens their self-interests — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 359; The core problem is power that resists politicization (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• The Leader’s power becomes structural necessity rather than personal superiority #exemplifies (0.85)
• Power holders resist social change that threatens their self-interests #contradicts (0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 359
• Stabilized politics make direct legacy influence fade into structure #expands (0.80) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 135
• A party becomes indestructible when its mass base and leadership perpetuate themselves #exemplifies (0.80)
• Elites legitimate their power by invoking a consensus they themselves pre-structure #expands (0.80) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 875
• The core problem is power that resists politicization #qualifies (0.75)
• Totalitarian regimes maintain an ostensible façade government alongside real power structures #complicates (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 905
• Coercion must increasingly disguise itself as improvement to sustain power #expands (0.75)
• A political element must prepare its own successors against its destruction #expands (0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 681
• In organizations power generates its own countervailing power. #complicates (0.75)