Electoral democracy is held to be the opposite of dictatorship and other forms of authoritarianism. Paradoxically, it can be turned into a step towards authoritarianism. Ideally, it offers the mechanism for rule by popular will, implemented by elections with institutional checks and balances.

Yet it can be co-opted by strong men (almost all examples are of men) to establish person-based rule. Acquiring power through elections, they then transform it into personal rule. President Trump is the present example of a strongman rule reached through elections.

In the 1990s, there was an intellectual current heralding the arrival of the age of democracy. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 gave a sense of triumph in Western countries. Francis Fukuyama’s book, The End of History and the Last Man (1992), proclaimed that liberal democracy is the terminal point of the evolution of political order. Yet it was not to be.

The economic liberalism of China flourished under one-party and strong leaders’ rule, in contradiction of Fukuyama’s theory. It is noteworthy that authoritarian rule has grown within liberal democratic systems.

Democracy can turn into the base for authoritarian rule in many ways.........

© The Friday Times