AUTOCRACY
vs DEMOCRACY vs THEOCRACY
Updated 260906
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.
THEOCRACY - A dictatorial form
of government, based on a particular religion, where some (or most)
of those governed believe that the dictator (and his minions) are
divinely guided by the deity or god they believe in.
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, 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). Prior to
World War II, Japan was a theocracy.
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, Saddam Hussein, 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
theocracy).
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. Although he sometimes might have fake
elections, where he eliminates any opposition or popular leader
prior to the election, that way he fools most Russian into believing
that they have a democracy.
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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