I’m very sad if I see which discussions people are making about the democracy in different countries. Some of them are accusing the most democratic countries of being dictatorships and others can’t recognize clearly suppressive systems as dictatorships. For some people almost all countries appear to be dictatorships, as it turned out from my recent poll on dPoll.

Good and evil

I don’t want to make politics, only politology. (The theory of politics.) So I won’t mention any country or person. Decide yourself which country could be positioned in which category. I’d like only make you think. Because in my humble opinion, a big problem on the World is that people can't make the difference between important things. For some of them there are only good and bad, black and white, friend and foe. Democracy and dictatorship. They are missing the shapes between.

People can be good in one moment and bad in the other. Or be neutral, or a little better than bad. A mixture of two things, with different weights, proportions. Somebody can be a good mother but a terrible colleague. Other a genius in his profession but a tyrant or a rogue in his family life. The same in politics. There are not only democracies, dictatorships and monarchies, also many shapes in between.

Good to be bad?

For example, Wikipedia explains two interesting sorts of dictatorship: dictablanda, like soft dictatorship and benevolent dictatorship, something like a good dictator. The latter:

…exercises absolute political power over the state but for benefit of the population as a whole, standing in contrast to the decidedly malevolent stereotype of a dictator. A benevolent dictator may allow for some economic liberalization or democratic decision-making to exist, such as through public referenda or elected representatives with limited power.

From soft to hard

I have my doubts if benevolent dictators really exist, but I think semi– (half-) dictatorships or soft (lite) dictatorships, hidden, stealthy, camouflaged, sneaky ones, surely do. I can observe this in several countries in Europe (no names, I promised). How can you recognize them? I made a small table to help you identify them. I think they are also very dangerous, many hard dictators began his careers as soft ones…

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Can you see the difference? Hard dictators are merciless, totally inhuman and often bloody. They don't care very much to keep their true nature secret. Moreover, their cruelty, the terror that has been carried out openly, can also be a means of retaining power. The intimidated people may be less dangerous than the other one who thinks they still have rights.

Cherry picking

In the soft dictatorship, on the other hand, they pretend, simulate that everything is fine, the rule of law and democracy work. They are no worse off than residents of other countries. (In fact, they usually tell the story to the people about how much they are better than everyone else.) Only a few sees the anger and real face of the soft dictator. Only those who are a real threat to him. Like some opposition politicians, artists, businessmen, members of non-governmental organizations, professors, other intellectuals who think differently.

The “crowd”, most average people, employees can live untroubled unless they make significant discomfort for the rulers. But the state-owned media is slowly reprogramming their brains. (Somebody told me in his country this is called “zombifying”.) They will be totally fooled, and in the end they will be grateful that they are robbed only a little, not very much. Such a sneaky, subtle half-dictatorship can cause a lot of damage in a country for decades. Not in the buildings, but in the souls and brains.

(Photo: Pixabay.com)