What Mandelson tells us about power

Power can be both formal and informal. Think of the first as the appointments and vetting process, the institutional element that permitted Mandelson to become Ambassador to the US. Think of the second as the network-effect of people-who-know-people. That was, after all, the actual and specific reason he was selected and the reason that so many conservatives in politics and the press applauded his appointment so robustly.

These two things affect us all. When you apply for any job – not just a top diplomatic posting – the application micro-site is the formal component, the reference from an old friend is the informal. It’s someone saying, “they’re all right”, a reassurance covering the back of the person using the institution’s formal process to make the hiring choice.

Look for it and this tension is everywhere; we navigate it as part of our everyday lives. When your boss issues a specific instruction within your job description that’s the former, but when they ask you if you wouldn’t mind helping so-and-so to finish some other unrelated task it’s the latter. A traffic light is the former, someone kindly waving you out is the latter.

The thing is that Mandelson really was uniquely well suited to that role because of his willingness to sideline formal, institutional power; to get what he wanted through the informal network. He demonstrated that was his personal approach through multiple scandals over the decades. 

For myself I find it distasteful when I see it tried and frankly repulsive when I see it work. But it is 100% Trump’s approach. 'Drain the swamp' or the more English attacks on 'the blob' are explicit calls for a transition of power from institutions to the royal court, from the formal to the informal.

And that is hideously dangerous. Not just because it opens those in charge to allegations of favour and bad judgement, but because formal power is so much more accountable. That’s why Trump, Orban, Truss and Farage want to traduce formal institutional power. Not only does it give them the power to enrich themselves (they all demonstrably have) but the informality of that personal, networked, court-of-the-king power makes it massively easier to sidestep the blame.

Stephen Gosling CBE

Unlock Democracy Council Member