Timeline for What would stop a representative democracy becoming a dictatorship?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Dec 9, 2017 at 23:26 | comment | added | user15103 | I second @reirab. The first paragraph is right. The second paragraph is wrong. Power comes from institutions, culture, and the citizens. In the USA for example you have three branches of government, the military, 50 state governments, numerous law enforcement agencies, state militias, etc, and an armed citizenry. Even if all three branches of the federal government "voted" for a dictatorship, they'd still have to win over the military, the states, and the citizens. (This is why fascist and communist countries deliberately try to destroy such decentralized institutions.) | |
| Dec 4, 2017 at 15:27 | comment | added | indigochild | @EricTowers - No, but there is some reason to why things happen. This answer fails to capture the variation we see in nature, so it doesn't do a good job of explaining the phenomenon being asked about. | |
| Dec 4, 2017 at 0:21 | comment | added | Eric Towers | @indigochild : Because this is not quantum mechanics -- not every thing that is possible is mandatory. | |
| Dec 2, 2017 at 2:19 | comment | added | indigochild | This doesn't seem very reasonable. If nothing prevents it, why doesn't every democracy turn into a dictatorship overnight? | |
| Dec 1, 2017 at 23:58 | comment | added | reirab | The first paragraph here kind of contradicts the second one, especially the bolded statement. The will of the people to remove a would-be dictator is a quite effective deterrent against a dictator gaining power, particularly when said people possess big sticks that are capable of causing high-velocity lead poisoning. | |
| Dec 1, 2017 at 12:28 | history | answered | JonathanReez | CC BY-SA 3.0 |