Pol PotRise and fall

Rise to Power

o As with all dictators Pol Pot and the Khmer rouge were able to

come into power because of the previous system’s failings. The

Cambodian government before the Khmer rouge was one that

allowed all the power to be given to a small ruling body that was

able to easily exploit the people. The conditions that resulted from

the large gap between the have-not population and the small

group of ‘haves’ that made up the government were the basis for

outcry against the current system. The Sihanouk Government

was failing the people and it was easy to rile the people up

against the government.

The Khmer Rouge abused the gullible and desperate masses and

the unstable conditions brought about by the war in Vietnam to

take power, winning a civil war and seizing Phnom Penh.

The governing system before the Khmer Rouge was a

dictatorship that allowed the small group of elite to abuse their

power and keep the wealth for themselves. Pol Pot was

against the corruption in the governing system, he saw the

poverty and poor living conditions in Cambodia and wanted to

change this. He believed that a communist system was the

way to fix the problems of the country and so he started to do

what he could to spread his ideas. He was trying to bring

Cambodia to a better way of life, but was misguided and

poorly prepared.

Pol Pot admitted that the Khmer Rouge handled the problems

that came with running a country poorly, they didn’t know how

to address dissidents, so they came up with a solution. A poor

solution but a solution.

Loss of Support

Although the death toll rose to about one in seven Cambodians, Pol Pot’s inner circle remained loyal, this was because of his ability for charismatic leadership that made people so loyal to him. Even so, he did not have the same level of loyalty from the rest of his people, the war and famine and lack of improvement in conditions from the previous regime made people turn against the Khmer Rouge, and the Khmer Rouge eventually turned upon itself, Pol Pot was exiled shortly after this and lived the remainder of his life alone dying of sickness before he could be tried for crimes against humanity.

What extent governments

should Ignore the will of the

peopleGovernments are an extension of the will of the people they represent, when the people are ignored by a government that government will fail.

It is vitally important for a government to meet the needs and wants of its people in order to stay in power and in order for peaceful living conditions. The government can ignore the will of its people to some extent, but only while it is ignoring the irrelevant or the minority. So long as the majority of people are happy and the government responds to their will the system will remain stable.