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Yes. It's one flaw of democracy. In a dictatorship, if the leader is great, it will grow like crazy... It's like a startup with great founders. On the other h
by ergocoder 6y ago
Yes. It's one flaw of democracy.
In a dictatorship, if the leader is great, it will grow like crazy... It's like a startup with great founders.
On the other hand, the problem will come when a hand-off needs to happen.
Singapore is clever enough to keep the democratic process, so it has some decent hand-off process.
- leafboi 6y agoDon't think that the democratic process guarantees a good hand off... it's still a crap shoot and a lucky draw. See current President Camacho of the United States. Unlike a dictator, the aggregate will of the people never serves the self interest of a single individual. The issue with majority rule is that the aggregate intelligence/judgement of the people is likely not matched with what is required to select a good leader.
- harshitaneja 6y agoDemocracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.
- dddw 6y agoLove the idiocracy reference there
- Spooky23 6y agoThe current situation reflects how law and society has lagged behind technolgy and social media. We moved away from moderated information delivery to a torrent of self-published nonsense. For every HN post, there are a dozen lunatics.
- srtjstjsj 6y agoDid you watch the whole movie? President Camacho was a good leader.
- sam_lynx 6y agoEh, as they said in the article: "Part of the mythos of Lee Kuan Yew is that he succeeded as an authoritarian where so many others have failed." Singapore is the exception; authoritarian governments are almost always bad for the people otherwise.
- kingkawn 6y agoMany Singaporeans will tell you that their experience is quite repressive
- sam_lynx 6y agoTrue -- after all, it is still authoritarian, the only difference is that this authoritarian government seems to care for the wealth of its citizens (although not much else.)
- dv_dt 6y agoBenevolent dictatorship is not just a sarcastic phrase, it is sometimes true for some distributions of benevolence in history. The more interesting question is what happens after he passes away, or cannot continue to make decisions.
- hellofunk 6y ago> Singapore is clever enough to keep the democratic process Mainly it appears to be a democracy. Speak to any of the cab drivers there who feel somewhat liberated to talk safely with a foreigner who is on the way to the airport, and they will tell you something about Singapore's democracy.
- nicholasluimy 6y agoNot sure if that's a fair judgement - It seems particularly endemic that it's almost a meme/stereotype in itself in Singapore; that all cab drivers are discontent with the government
- CyberDildonics 6y agoSingapore is not a democracy. They have sham elections where the opposition party is only allowed to have media coverage by the single state run media channel for three weeks before the election. If your neighborhood votes for the opposition party you lose funding for things like public transportation. Lee Kuan Yew lives in a giant, gated, guarded compound in the middle of the most valuable real estate in the city. Also criticizing the government is a crime and saying the wrong thing on facebook can land you in prison.
- ZephyrP 6y ago>> Lee Kuan Yew lives in a giant, gated, guarded compound in the middle of the most valuable real estate in the city Didn't he die the better part of a decade ago?
- pitterpatter 6y agoI wonder if they meant his son, Lee Hsien Loong, the current prime minister.
- hatenberg 6y agoIts also super disingenuous LKY lived in a rather small house. The current president tried to continue living in her HDB (public housing) after taking office but gave up on advice of security and complaints from neighbours about said security.
- Spooky23 6y agoIt’s just like any company, which are usually little dictatorships. If the controls and discipline aren’t present, you get a failed state with everyone’s crony wasting and damaging the whole.