In order for people to live together, social cohesion must be ensured. For this reason, it is imperative that there is a group dealing with administrative affairs in the social structure. We can call it politics. Of course, if there is a state-scale community, we cannot talk about a completely homogeneous structure. The fact that different structures are in a community means that the administration will have different suitors. Therefore, there is a political competition in this process. The institution of power, which has a say in the administration, and an opposition institution that controls it is an indispensable part of today's politics.
We know that there were different practices in the past regarding the method of obtaining power. Today, the method that is generally accepted and tried to be applied with good or bad is choice. In other words, powers are determined through elections. What a political will has to do for this is to get the support of the people who will choose the government. Thus, the legitimacy of having a say in the administration will be ensured. This process is not limited to gaining power. Staying in power is also part of this process. In other words, it is important for political parties or groups to stay in power as much as they gain power.
We can evaluate the process of staying in power in three stages. The consent phase, the intimidation phase, and the fear-inducing phase. The political will in power will consume these stages one by one in order not to lose power. Therefore, these stages express the processes of losing power as well as the process of staying in power.
A political group has to persuade voters to gain and maintain power. At the stage of consent, the political group is considered to deserve power with its ideas, programs and actions. Therefore, the majority of the people consent to the granting of the authority to govern to that political group. We can consider the phase of consent as the main source of legitimacy of the power. At this stage the political group has to be productive. He should take the necessary actions to please the people who gave him authority. This is the process where political will is most efficient.
However, after a while, the people will not be satisfied with what has been done as a result of the loss of political productivity, the deterioration of power, and the priority of personal interests. In this case, a different process will be entered to convince the public. The people, who cannot be persuaded to consent to the government, are persuaded by fear. At this stage, the political group does not deserve power, but the power is obliged to that political group. The masses are persuaded that it would be right for the political group to remain in power by instilling some fears in the people. Survival problem, external power threat, terrorist threat, coup threat, demonization of political opponents, emphasis on stability and chaos scenarios can be applied for this method of persuasion. Thus, it seems reasonable to preserve the present for the masses who want to make a choice out of fear.
Finally, in the fear-inducing phase, it is no longer important to convince the public. In fact, this stage also shows that the government has exhausted its life. Because the only way to keep it alive is to intimidate, suppress and punish the masses with various methods. In this way, the objections that may come to him are silenced and the correct information of the public is prevented. In the atmosphere of fear, both the opposition and the public will not have a chance to say a different word or make a choice. However, it is not possible for the government, which survives with oppression and intimidation, to continue this after the bar of fear is overcome.