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One of the worst things about dictatorships is that the leaders start making very irrational decisions, just because you "embarrass" them or so they "don't look

One of the worst things about dictatorships is that the leaders start making very irrational decisions, just because you "embarrass" them or so they "don't look weak" or whatever. They take it personal. In a (real) democracy that's usually much harder to do, since there are many more decision makers who have to act on something, and even if there are a few emotional ones, the rest can keep cool heads and restrict them and make decisions for the long term future of the country.

jevgeni 12y ago
Exactly, it is insane, how personal some people in the ex-USSR perceive some things. The way Russian society went absolutely bonkers over the Pussy Riot case is one example. The reaction to protests and the subsequent revolution in Ukraine is another.
drzaiusapelord 12y ago
>make decisions for the long term future of the country. Or from a more Machiavellian perspective, they know their position is ultimately a temp job. Obama will be gone soon, but Putin will stay. Obama has no incentive to build up some massive cult of personality like dictators do. Its unneeded. Dictators, on the other hand, rule by the fist and part of that fist is building some asinine strongman personality for the borscht eaters who buy into that crap.
hga 12y ago
There's nothing in the least irrational about their decisions of this nature. They're trying to avoid, for example, a preference cascade that could take them from being at the top of the world to in front of a firing squad in as little as 4 days: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceau%C8%99escu%27s_final_speech https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceau%C8%99escu%27s_final_speec... Whatever makes you think most of them give a sh*t about "the long term future of the country"? Hitler, strangely enough, actually did ... just very very poorly.... That's actually something he had in common with what I might call some of the "first generation revolutionary dictators", like Lenin (New Economic Policy) and Mao (where country != the people, who he believed to be very expendable in part because there were so many). But the 2nd generation, such as Stalin, or those who didn't actually do the revolution thing, like Ceaușescu ... I can't think of any examples off the top of my head.

jevgeni 12y ago

Exactly, it is insane, how personal some people in the ex-USSR perceive some things. The way Russian society went absolutely bonkers over the Pussy Riot case is one example. The reaction to protests and the subsequent revolution in Ukraine is another.

drzaiusapelord 12y ago

>make decisions for the long term future of the country. Or from a more Machiavellian perspective, they know their position is ultimately a temp job. Obama will be gone soon, but Putin will stay. Obama has no incentive to build up some massive cult of personality like dictators do. Its unneeded. Dictators, on the other hand, rule by the fist and part of that fist is building some asinine strongman personality for the borscht eaters who buy into that crap.

hga 12y ago

There's nothing in the least irrational about their decisions of this nature. They're trying to avoid, for example, a preference cascade that could take them from being at the top of the world to in front of a firing squad in as little as 4 days: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceau%C8%99escu%27s_final_speech https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceau%C8%99escu%27s_final_speec... Whatever makes you think most of them give a sh*t about "the long term future of the country"? Hitler, strangely enough, actually did ... just very very poorly.... That's actually something he had in common with what I might call some of the "first generation revolutionary dictators", like Lenin (New Economic Policy) and Mao (where country != the people, who he believed to be very expendable in part because there were so many). But the 2nd generation, such as Stalin, or those who didn't actually do the revolution thing, like Ceaușescu ... I can't think of any examples off the top of my head.