The Politics of Harry Potter: Corrupt Law and Totalitarian Government by Samantha Love (23 May, 2014) focuses on the Governmental system within JK Rowling’s famous Harry Potter series ‘The Ministry of Magic’ as well as current Governmental systems and Laws. For instance the Ministry of Magic is seen to have an incredible amount of power with very few ways of ensuring it is used properly. Love, sees this as a lack of control on the Ministry hence what makes it so easy to infiltrate and take over without the wizarding community realising or even the chance to protest she goes on to say that study in how not to organise a state, and it’s through using examples from the series that we can really begin to understand how important it is that executive and legislative power is controlled by and accountable to the people, and that there are limits on what power it can have over us. (Love, 2014) Love goes on to say that “The First Amendment of the USA, the Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights, Article 10 of the UK’s Human Rights Act, Article 5 of the German Basic Law… there’s hardly a constitution, human rights Act or international agreement on human rights that doesn’t fiercely protect freedom of expression (2014). Therefore the ability to contribute to a debate in society, is the solid foundation of Democracy. Protecting the rights for everyone to publish and speak their views, is an assured way to make sure that voices of ethnic minorities are heard and our disabled communities. Obviously their are some limits to this freedom to prevent crimes from occurring and for reasons of security. It is important to note however, these limits are strictly monitored by constitutional or international courts - and its peoples. Political expression is without a doubt the most heavily protected of all, since criticising the government is important to democracy. In JK Rowling’ Harry Potter series ‘the Daily Prophet’ seems to be the only newspaper anyone in the wizardry world reads.
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We later find out that the Daily Prophet is heavily censored by the Ministry itself. In modern society, this would cause enormous issues for different political views that would have ensured on the proper criticization of the Ministry. We can now see there aren’t any of the protections of free speech that we so desperately have fought for within the Wizarding world. Without Political parties in place to argue new policies, even the simplest of decisions is completely out of the hands of the people. Legislation is left entirely to the ministry itself and members of specific Departments. Anything could be passed, like selling spaghetti noodles to fuel your car. Although impossible, the citizens of the Wizarding world would have no say. Overall, we can see the wizarding world is not the place for difference. For instance, Giants, werewolves, goblins and of course Muggle-born are just some of the groups in the Wizarding world, that are treated as second class citizens or even slaves. It is obvious here that the law can only achieve so much. In today’s world, many countries have outlawed many different types of discrimination, but that doesn’t stop people from continuing to discriminate. It is important for societies to have laws to protect minorities, it helped create the process of changing people 's attitudes and perceptions. Knowing this, we can see that the Ministry of Magic has a totalitarianism ‘choke hold’ on those in the Wizarding world.
We later find out that the Daily Prophet is heavily censored by the Ministry itself. In modern society, this would cause enormous issues for different political views that would have ensured on the proper criticization of the Ministry. We can now see there aren’t any of the protections of free speech that we so desperately have fought for within the Wizarding world. Without Political parties in place to argue new policies, even the simplest of decisions is completely out of the hands of the people. Legislation is left entirely to the ministry itself and members of specific Departments. Anything could be passed, like selling spaghetti noodles to fuel your car. Although impossible, the citizens of the Wizarding world would have no say. Overall, we can see the wizarding world is not the place for difference. For instance, Giants, werewolves, goblins and of course Muggle-born are just some of the groups in the Wizarding world, that are treated as second class citizens or even slaves. It is obvious here that the law can only achieve so much. In today’s world, many countries have outlawed many different types of discrimination, but that doesn’t stop people from continuing to discriminate. It is important for societies to have laws to protect minorities, it helped create the process of changing people 's attitudes and perceptions. Knowing this, we can see that the Ministry of Magic has a totalitarianism ‘choke hold’ on those in the Wizarding world.