AUTOCRACY vs DEMOCRACY
Revised and updated 221223

Autocracy - A form of government  where a single individual rules with unlimited authority.

Democracy - A form of government where the majority, of those governed, elect politicians who will represent them.

The foundation (corner stone), of a good democracy, is a Constitution that can clearly state the powers that belong to the central government, the powers that belong to local governments, and the powers that belong to the people. And for a democracy to function properly, the governmental power should be shared between a legislative branch, an executive branch, and a judicial branch.

We might think that autocracies are dictatorships. However, that is not necessarily true, because dictators are usually tyrants. And tyrants are rulers who seize power without legal right to it. Also tyrants are defined as persons who exercise power in an oppressive and cruel way. And there have been autocracies where the ruler was chosen by a few wise men, or was the best warrior they had, or the most popular, or was though to have been given the power to rule by God. And some of those rulers were not considered tyrants.

Monarchies are autocracies. However, some monarchies have evolved into pseudo-democratic monarchies. Two good examples, of this, are Japan & Britain. In Britain, the legislative branch (parliament) is split into a house of lords (members of the monarchy) and a house of commons (elected by the people). In Japan, the emperor shares power with his ministers, and the people elect representatives to the Diet (their legislative branch).

Some examples of dishonest demagogue dictators who established bad autocracies in their countries are; Adolf Hitler (Nazi Germany), Mussolini (Nazi Italy), Fulgencio Batista (Cuban military dictator), Fidel Castro (Socialist/Communist Military Dictator), Muammar Gaddafi, and last but not least, the war criminal Vladimir Putin.

History has proven that accepting or supporting an autocracy can have bad consequences. All communist revolutions were preceded by autocracies, not true democracies.

Historical examples:

1. When the USA supported the autocracy of military dictator Fulgencio Batista, they created an environment that encourage a revolution. A revolution that did NOT restored democracy, instead it created another autocracy, ruled by another military dictator (Fidel Castro) who established a single political party (the communist party) and became an ally of the Soviet Union (an enemy of freedom & democracy).

2. When Czar Nicolas II allowed too much "wealth inequality" in Russia, and failed to give sufficient power to his parliament (the Duma). He unknowingly fueled a revolution that replaced his Imperial Monarchy with a communist autocracy.

3. When Iran's parliamentary democracy suffered a coup (orchestrated by MI6 and the CIA, due to the Iranian's intention to nationalize the oil industry), and a dictatorial autocracy was established, with the Shah (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi) as the ruling monarch. They created the political turmoil that fueled a revolution that replaced his monarchy with a much worst autocracy (a religious dictatorial  autocracy).

4. When the Soviet Union broke-up, Russia started to drift toward a democracy, thanks to Boris Yeltsin and many Russians who wanted the freedom and standard of living that Europeans democracies were enjoying. However, they made the mistake of replacing Yeltsin with Putin. Putin, like must narcissist demagogues, prefers an imperialistic dictatorial autocracy, were he is the supreme dictator, until he dies or someone kills him.

No form of government seems to be perfect, mainly because most persons are vulnerable to bribes, corruption, and greed. And there are some greedy and dishonest, but popular, narcissist demagogues, who find it easy to fool a lot of gullible people into believing that they (the popular narcissists) would make good rulers who will make, the nation they rule, greater (without explaining what greater means). When in fact, all they want is to get richer, become more popular (they like attention), and make some of his billionaire supporters, richer, reduce the taxes paid by very large corporations and extremely rich individuals. They don't care about democracies, constitutions, our freedom, human rights, the environment, domestic tranquility, welfare of the less fortunate, etc. Those demagogues usually lack intelligence, although they brag about how smart they are. When in fact, they never studied science, philosophy, logic, history, etc.. at a University. They sometimes have a College degree in Business, Law, or Political Science (not a true science).
    
Honest and honorable persons seem to be a small minority, nowadays. Although, there are some institutions that still have an honor code, such as West Point (U.S Military Academy) ,the U.S. Naval Academy. and some Universities.

REFERENCES:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autocracy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Diet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muammar_Gaddafi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchism_in_Iran
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Duma_(Russian_Empire)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_II_of_Russia

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