Medieval in More Ways than One
We have seen that the demographics of the wizarding world resembles pre-industrial Britain between the late middle ages and the early modern period. I have discussed the burden of infectious diseases on wizarding society but traditionally disease is not the only problem facing pre-industrial societies.
Where death stalks the land, it does so in the twin forms of war and plague.
Smoke and Mirrors
One of the biggest mistakes that all readers subconsciously make when enjoying the fantasy genre is projecting the rules which govern our own societies onto that of the fantasy realm. Harry Potter provides a bigger trap than most fantasy novels because it takes place within an establishment we are all familiar with: school. Hogwarts on the surface functions exactly like an English Public school and it exists in the context of a long line of well-loved boarding school books.
However we cannot extrapolate the similarity of Hogwarts to encompass wizarding society at large. The magical world is most definitely not muggle Britain in miniature. The power structures that exist in the wizarding world are not direct reflections of their modern muggle counterparts. The Wizengamot is emphatically not a smaller version of the House of Commons. The similarities we think we see are nothing more than misperceptions.
We must always remember that wizards have been developing their own unique society cut off almost completely from the muggle world for over 300 years. Just think how different muggle society is now compared to 300 hundred years ago and you can get an idea of the vast difference that may exist between the muggle and wizarding worlds. As the wizarding world had magic and a much smaller populace, it would not and could not develop along parallel lines with the mundane society of Britain. Instead it must have taken a divergent path. Just because Harry Potter, a child raised in the muggle world subconsciously draws parallels between the two worlds does not mean that we would be correct in following his lead.
On the Brink of Anarchy
The most noticeably difference in wizarding society is that everyone over the age of 17 is legally armed. This means that there is a completely different power dynamic between the powers-that-be and the common populace. The pragmatic reason why modern muggle governments can retain power is because they control quantitatively and qualitatively superior firepower compared with the population as whole. Fear of force is often the well-disguised motivation that keeps societies civilised. When large sections of the population become well-armed enough to challenge the government controlled military or paramilitary organisations: civil war and anarchy inevitably breaks out.
The Ministry of Magic is not the equivalent of the British government. It does not have a superiorly equipped military and the populace it nominally controls is sometimes better armed and less constrained than the Ministry itself. The reason the Ministry of Magic exists and does manage to exert some control over the wizarding population is due to an external source of fear: fear of being discovered by the muggle world.
The wizarding world has effectively lived under a state of emergency ever since total wizarding seclusion was introduced in the 17th century. In fact the Ministry of Magic’s main purpose is not to govern the wizarding Britain, so much as to prevent anarchy and the exposure of magic because wizarding society is always tittering on the edge of civil war.
If we must draw paralells to our own world: Wizarding Britain is not unlike the late middle ages where a comparatively large proportion of the population was well armed enough for local feudal lords to raise their own armies and personally control these armies. This leads to civil war as demonstrated by the Wars of the Roses.
The only real way to exert some control over the situation is to “disarm” the population through education (or lack of education). This is why the Ministry has a very keen interest in trying to prevent the teaching of aggressive or defensive magic like DADA or duelling because it in effect makes the populace better armed against the ministry.
The Ministry takes its mandate of preventing anarchy very serious. It metes out swift and brutal punishment dispensed to all who are deemed “guilty” regardless of the severity of their crime. Take Hagrid’s imprisonment in Chamber of Secrets for example. He was locked away in Azkaban for possibly being linked to the opening of the Chamber of Secrets because he was blamed for it the first time around. Stan Shunpike was imprisoned for claiming to know inside information about Death Eaters, when he was notorious for saying ridiculous things. The galling thing is that their punishment is exactly the same as that meted out to people who have actually committed grievous crimes.
This is not a society that values justice, or even the individual lives of the populace. This is a society imprisoned by its own fear of exposure and will use any means necessary to prevent this from happening.
Continued in: The Most Feared Dark Lord (In a Century)
Where death stalks the land, it does so in the twin forms of war and plague.
- Why we cannot assume that the Ministry is similar to a Muggle Government
- Why wizarding society is inherently unstable
- Why injustice is so widespread in wizarding society
Smoke and Mirrors
One of the biggest mistakes that all readers subconsciously make when enjoying the fantasy genre is projecting the rules which govern our own societies onto that of the fantasy realm. Harry Potter provides a bigger trap than most fantasy novels because it takes place within an establishment we are all familiar with: school. Hogwarts on the surface functions exactly like an English Public school and it exists in the context of a long line of well-loved boarding school books.
However we cannot extrapolate the similarity of Hogwarts to encompass wizarding society at large. The magical world is most definitely not muggle Britain in miniature. The power structures that exist in the wizarding world are not direct reflections of their modern muggle counterparts. The Wizengamot is emphatically not a smaller version of the House of Commons. The similarities we think we see are nothing more than misperceptions.
We must always remember that wizards have been developing their own unique society cut off almost completely from the muggle world for over 300 years. Just think how different muggle society is now compared to 300 hundred years ago and you can get an idea of the vast difference that may exist between the muggle and wizarding worlds. As the wizarding world had magic and a much smaller populace, it would not and could not develop along parallel lines with the mundane society of Britain. Instead it must have taken a divergent path. Just because Harry Potter, a child raised in the muggle world subconsciously draws parallels between the two worlds does not mean that we would be correct in following his lead.
On the Brink of Anarchy
The most noticeably difference in wizarding society is that everyone over the age of 17 is legally armed. This means that there is a completely different power dynamic between the powers-that-be and the common populace. The pragmatic reason why modern muggle governments can retain power is because they control quantitatively and qualitatively superior firepower compared with the population as whole. Fear of force is often the well-disguised motivation that keeps societies civilised. When large sections of the population become well-armed enough to challenge the government controlled military or paramilitary organisations: civil war and anarchy inevitably breaks out.
The Ministry of Magic is not the equivalent of the British government. It does not have a superiorly equipped military and the populace it nominally controls is sometimes better armed and less constrained than the Ministry itself. The reason the Ministry of Magic exists and does manage to exert some control over the wizarding population is due to an external source of fear: fear of being discovered by the muggle world.
The wizarding world has effectively lived under a state of emergency ever since total wizarding seclusion was introduced in the 17th century. In fact the Ministry of Magic’s main purpose is not to govern the wizarding Britain, so much as to prevent anarchy and the exposure of magic because wizarding society is always tittering on the edge of civil war.
If we must draw paralells to our own world: Wizarding Britain is not unlike the late middle ages where a comparatively large proportion of the population was well armed enough for local feudal lords to raise their own armies and personally control these armies. This leads to civil war as demonstrated by the Wars of the Roses.
The only real way to exert some control over the situation is to “disarm” the population through education (or lack of education). This is why the Ministry has a very keen interest in trying to prevent the teaching of aggressive or defensive magic like DADA or duelling because it in effect makes the populace better armed against the ministry.
The Ministry takes its mandate of preventing anarchy very serious. It metes out swift and brutal punishment dispensed to all who are deemed “guilty” regardless of the severity of their crime. Take Hagrid’s imprisonment in Chamber of Secrets for example. He was locked away in Azkaban for possibly being linked to the opening of the Chamber of Secrets because he was blamed for it the first time around. Stan Shunpike was imprisoned for claiming to know inside information about Death Eaters, when he was notorious for saying ridiculous things. The galling thing is that their punishment is exactly the same as that meted out to people who have actually committed grievous crimes.
This is not a society that values justice, or even the individual lives of the populace. This is a society imprisoned by its own fear of exposure and will use any means necessary to prevent this from happening.
Continued in: The Most Feared Dark Lord (In a Century)