If you lose to totalitarians, you die. If totalitarians lose to you, they die. That's kind of a bizarre and exaggerated way to put things. Nominally, what sepa

If you lose to totalitarians, you die. If totalitarians lose to you, they die. That's kind of a bizarre and exaggerated way to put things. Nominally, what separates dictatorship and democracy is that a democratic regime doesn't wantonly murder it's enemies. Some dictatorial regimes engage in brutal attacks on their enemies but even there, for most people life goes on. Also, there are a variety of regimes mid-way between democracy and totalitarianism - the current regimes of India and Turkey for example. Which is to say the loss and the gaining of democratic rights is often (though not always) a gradual thing.