If you think this is a problem that only applies to dictatorships, I encourage you to read The Melian Dialogue by Thucydides http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meli

If you think this is a problem that only applies to dictatorships, I encourage you to read The Melian Dialogue by Thucydides http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melian_dialogue http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melian_dialogue All Great Powers fear losing face, democracies are not immune, as a glance at television news or newspaper opinion pages would show.