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★ Harry Potter
ministry of magic
The Ministry of Magic is the government of the magical people. As Voldemort rose in power, the Ministry of Magic descreased in morality, and Voldemort eventually took over.
In The Social Contract, it expresses "the abuse of government and its tendency to regenerate" (131). "the more [the exertion of the government] increases, the more the constitution changes for the worse,...sooner or later it is inevitable that the prince will oppress the sovreign and break the social treaty" (131). If the government forces its power on the people for their own means, the leader is forcibly taking over, and that will break the social contract. In Harry Potter, the Ministry didn't tell the people that Voldemort was back, which took the people's right of knowing about such a major problem. During the 5th movie, Albus tells the Minister, "Cornelius, I implore you to see reason. The evidence of the Dark Lord's return is incontrovertible," but the Minister replied, "He is not back!" The Ministry refused to acknowledge that Voldemort was back and made everyone believe that Dumbledore was crazy instead. They also enforced their power over Hogwarts without legitimate reasoning. Umbridge, a high-level ministry worker, even told the students at Hogwarts that Dumbledore and Harry were lying in the 5th movie. She stated to a class "Let me make this quite plain. You have been told that a certain Dark Wizard is at large once again. This is a lie." The Ministry continuously deprived the people and improperly imposed their powers, which led to the people's hatred of the ministry. However, this is strained because although the ministry exerted its power on Hogwarts, they did not on the whole magical community. The ministry only kept secrets from the people.
Rousseau also states, "a government never changes its form unless its exhausted energies are too feeble to maintain its original form" (132). If the government doesn't have enough power to keep itself going, the government will eventually change. In the case of the Ministry of Magic, it exhausted its powers so much on keeping things hidden from the people and focusing on the conquering of Hogwarts, making it easy for Voldemort to take over.