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"Russia and China were already democracies before the authoritarian parties took over." Russia was not[0]. One of the key reasons that laid foundations for rev
by kbart 9y ago
"Russia and China were already democracies before the authoritarian parties took over."
Russia was not[0]. One of the key reasons that laid foundations for revolution there was wide discontent of nobles and their arrogance towards common people.
0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsarist_autocracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsarist_autocracy
- unabridged 9y agoThe people overthrew the Tsar and had one free election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Constituent_Assembly_election,_1917 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Constituent_Assembly_e... The authoritarians (bolsheviks) didn't like the results (thought the people weren't conscious enough yet to be trusted to be democratic) and disbanded the democratic assembly. Instead they used their own assembly made of up representatives indirectly elected via small local groups where they controlled the voting by force. Which caused a civil war in which the authoritarians won. The authoritarians were just more organized and better at violence.
- kbart 9y agoAn interesting history fact I didn't know -- thank you. But I doubt one election, which results were immediately negated anyway, is enough to call Russia "a democracy". It looks like it was just a (failed) attempt of bolsheviks to get an international legitimacy.