Benign dictator vs bad democracy

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   There are several factors to this question:
A dictatorship can be somewhat beneficial to the people in the beginning, but usually this effect wears off very fast and dictatorships very quickly turn into oppressive and monstrous regimes. The term benign dictator is almost impossible, really. A democracy can suck- but it will usually get more democratic as time goes on. Democracy is a learning process really... 

Poll Question: What is better?
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
A benign dictator	13	[72.22%]
A bad democracy	5	[27.78%]
This topic is closed, no new votes accepted

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frippism Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: July 27 2010 Location: Tel Aviv Status: Offline Points: 4160	Posted: June 20 2012 at 01:55
	There are several factors to this question: A dictatorship can be somewhat beneficial to the people in the beginning, but usually this effect wears off very fast and dictatorships very quickly turn into oppressive and monstrous regimes. The term benign dictator is almost impossible, really. A democracy can suck- but it will usually get more democratic as time goes on. Democracy is a learning process really...
	There be dragons

Textbook Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Forum Senior Member Joined: October 08 2009 Status: Offline Points: 3281	Posted: June 20 2012 at 00:08
	An angelic and hard-working dictator would certainly be better than a bad democracy. I don't even know how you could say the opposite unless out of blind dedication to being "an American goddamit."

The T Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: October 16 2006 Location: FL, USA Status: Offline Points: 17493	Posted: June 19 2012 at 22:50
	The typical political axiom is "even a bad democracy is better than a benign dictator". No matter how good or benevolent an autocratic ruler might be, it would still be worse than even a poorly functioning democracy. Is this true? Isn't the latter just a different form of the former in some cases? Opinions?