4 ms·

"Nowadays, almost all dictatorships and authoritarian regimes at least go through the electoral motions—such is the homage vice pays to virtue." I've always fo

by xefer 11y ago

"Nowadays, almost all dictatorships and authoritarian regimes at least go through the electoral motions—such is the homage vice pays to virtue." I've always found it curious how many authoritarian regimes go through the motions of sham elections or include some of variation of "Democratic Republic" in their name. It would seem to undermine their own self-proclaimed legitimacy.

adventured 11y ago
A lot of authoritarian regimes actually end up believing their own version of reality. They believe they're representative, saving their nation, that the people want them there etc. Plenty - if not most - of the dictators that have ruled in the last century were extremely irrational. There is enough historical information about Saddam, Fidel, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Putin, Mussolini, etc. to see that common thread among them - they believed they were put there by 'the people' to best serve the people's interests. In their delusional minds, it's a form of democratic representation. The Communist Party regime in China today believes that same thing. Just look at what Putin believes today. He thinks that as a dictator (he disagrees with that title of course) he can best serve Russia by being a strongman type, and fighting to reclaim what he perceives as Russia's lost glory. He seems to actually believe he is in Russia's best interests, represents the average Russian, and has been legitimately elected (despite the vast vote rigging during his first election for example).
- leaveyou 11y ago
  The superficiality of your opinion makes me believe you take your "historical information" from the History Channel.
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    It'd be nicer if you pointed out what's wrong with that particular opinion rather than to attack the person.
    - leaveyou 11y ago
      First, believing that "extremely irrational" people can compete with other rational and irrational individuals or groups and climb a hierarchy of power to the top and control it (for decades sometimes) it's something self evidently irrational in my opinion. And second, I doubt the OP really knows what "Putin believes". Putin projects a lot of images for a lot of different people and that's part of a very rational strategy (most probably conceived by some advisor specialized on russian voter psychology). The OP is stuck on one of these projections because it's fed to him frequently by a very rational mass media which simply understands that the average joe needs/loves to believe he is smarter than the "obviously delusional dictator" of a country with 143 million people.
contingencies 11y ago
"The biggest obstacle to restoring freedoms for Singaporeans is that our government doesn’t shoot protesters and that it does hold elections. That’s just enough to persuade the West to praise us and they in turn can take advantage of our convenient off shore, low tax regime. It would definitely be easier to protest against full blown tyranny." Singapore is an example. In their case, by claiming they are a pluralistic democracy, allies and investors can repeat the claim, smoothing the process of doing business with an essentially corrupt and authoritarian regime. See http://www.wired.com/1993/04/gibson-2/ http://www.wired.com/1993/04/gibson-2/ and http://www.wired.com/2012/04/opinion-jeyaretnam-disneyland-death-penalty/ http://www.wired.com/2012/04/opinion-jeyaretnam-disneyland-d... "Singapore is becoming increasingly isolated as it falls behind and becomes more North Korea than South Korea." "Despite attempts by the EU and the US to combat money laundering and bribery, Singapore seems to accept any pariah’s money. Singapore has been one of the prime business partners of the Burmese junta and been at the forefront of attempts to stop tougher sanctions being imposed on the regime."
chrisbennet 11y ago
It's like naming a used car dealership "Honest Johns Used Cars"
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
Haoting 11y ago
Hello Xefer - My name is Haoting and I work for the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that supports Wikipedia around the world. Could we talk about your project-"Wikipedia Radical Graph"? Thank you!

by xefer 11y ago

adventured 11y ago

A lot of authoritarian regimes actually end up believing their own version of reality. They believe they're representative, saving their nation, that the people want them there etc. Plenty - if not most - of the dictators that have ruled in the last century were extremely irrational. There is enough historical information about Saddam, Fidel, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Putin, Mussolini, etc. to see that common thread among them - they believed they were put there by 'the people' to best serve the people's interests. In their delusional minds, it's a form of democratic representation. The Communist Party regime in China today believes that same thing. Just look at what Putin believes today. He thinks that as a dictator (he disagrees with that title of course) he can best serve Russia by being a strongman type, and fighting to reclaim what he perceives as Russia's lost glory. He seems to actually believe he is in Russia's best interests, represents the average Russian, and has been legitimately elected (despite the vast vote rigging during his first election for example).

leaveyou 11y ago
The superficiality of your opinion makes me believe you take your "historical information" from the History Channel.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  It'd be nicer if you pointed out what's wrong with that particular opinion rather than to attack the person.
  - leaveyou 11y ago
    First, believing that "extremely irrational" people can compete with other rational and irrational individuals or groups and climb a hierarchy of power to the top and control it (for decades sometimes) it's something self evidently irrational in my opinion. And second, I doubt the OP really knows what "Putin believes". Putin projects a lot of images for a lot of different people and that's part of a very rational strategy (most probably conceived by some advisor specialized on russian voter psychology). The OP is stuck on one of these projections because it's fed to him frequently by a very rational mass media which simply understands that the average joe needs/loves to believe he is smarter than the "obviously delusional dictator" of a country with 143 million people.

contingencies 11y ago

"The biggest obstacle to restoring freedoms for Singaporeans is that our government doesn’t shoot protesters and that it does hold elections. That’s just enough to persuade the West to praise us and they in turn can take advantage of our convenient off shore, low tax regime. It would definitely be easier to protest against full blown tyranny." Singapore is an example. In their case, by claiming they are a pluralistic democracy, allies and investors can repeat the claim, smoothing the process of doing business with an essentially corrupt and authoritarian regime. See http://www.wired.com/1993/04/gibson-2/ http://www.wired.com/1993/04/gibson-2/ and http://www.wired.com/2012/04/opinion-jeyaretnam-disneyland-death-penalty/ http://www.wired.com/2012/04/opinion-jeyaretnam-disneyland-d... "Singapore is becoming increasingly isolated as it falls behind and becomes more North Korea than South Korea." "Despite attempts by the EU and the US to combat money laundering and bribery, Singapore seems to accept any pariah’s money. Singapore has been one of the prime business partners of the Burmese junta and been at the forefront of attempts to stop tougher sanctions being imposed on the regime."

chrisbennet 11y ago

It's like naming a used car dealership "Honest Johns Used Cars"

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

Haoting 11y ago

Hello Xefer - My name is Haoting and I work for the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that supports Wikipedia around the world. Could we talk about your project-"Wikipedia Radical Graph"? Thank you!