Leadership in The Walking Dead: Comparing the Governor, Negan and Rick

The Governor: The power-hungry politician

The Governor is a true manipulator, who constantly lies to people and talks from both sides of his mouth. He is essentially a politician. The way he gets called “the Governor” instead of using his name symbolizes how he hides his personal motives and dark secrets behind what can be described as his “function” – although he claims this name was given to him by other people.

The Governor is a demagogue: one of his manipulation techniques is to downplay his own role in the decision-making process and to let his “citizens” believe that they, not him, are making the choices. For instance, when the Governor wants to have Daryl and Merle fight to the death in his arena, he doesn’t openly pass judgment himself. He asks the audience: “What shall we do with them?” and then tells Andrea: “It’s not up to me anymore. The people have spoken.” This allows him to pass his own decision as the people’s decision. Similarly, he lets Sasha and Tyreese suggest that they should join his army.

Like all demagogues, he also uses fear and the figure of an external enemy to manipulate people: “Terrorists want what we have”, he tells the inhabitants of Woodbury after Rick’s group attack. The Governor keeps his people in ignorance about the true reason of the conflict with the prison – Merle’s decision to grab Maggie and Glenn – and capitalizes on their fear and shock to make them fight his personal vendetta against them.