Democracy vs Dictatorship

What makes it so that one form of government gives people a better life than another? Choice. This is why a bad democracy will always be better than a good dictatorship. In a democracy, power is distributed among the people, whereas a dictatorship is a form of government in which political authority is concentrated in the hands of a single leader. So why does democracy always win? Take a walk with me through two imaginary countries, Liberdonia and Dictatoria.

Let us lay the scene for our stories. Scenario one, or the democratic scenario, will take place in Liberdonia, the country of liberty. Scenario two, the dictatorship, will take place in Dictatoria. For the fairest comparison, both Liberdonia and Dictatoria will start with a GDP per capita of around $24,248 or around the middle of where most modern countries are. Liberdonia will be a representative democracy with regular, free, and competitive elections. Its constitution guarantees freedom of speech, assembly, and political participation. Yet the elections have corruption and a sort of black-and-white view of politics. The political scene is dominated by the wealthy. Once elected, leaders prioritize popularity over reform, fearing backlash at the next vote. Despite this, Liberdonia’s constitution protects civil liberties so that citizens can speak, protest, and vote without fear of persecution. The press can criticize the government freely, and courts still function, though they are not always efficient. Thomas Jefferson once said, “When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The reason why Liberdonia is not a dictatorship is that the people can protest and vote out, and use their rights to kick out a president who does not protect their rights, which puts them in power. This does not mean that they would, just that they have the option to. Dictatoria operates under an autocratic government. The ruler, who is the leader of the Free Party, has strict control over politics. Elections occur once the former leader dies and are tightly controlled by the Free Party, so they stay in control. Citizens have limited ability to challenge policies or influence leadership, and dissent is often suppressed. 

Alex was born in the capital city of Liberdonia, into a modest life. His parents were both teachers, and they joked that by the time Alex could walk, a new president would already be making the same promises as the last. In the early years of Alex’s life, Liberdonia was steady but stagnant. Most families enough to keep afloat but not enough to make people think of the future. The government promised growth, but little changed. Roads were patched but never redone, and schools were underfunded. A Harvard study on democracy and development saw “such cycles of shallow reform and political turnover often limiting long-term growth in developing democracies,” which was true in Liberdonia. Alex grew up watching his parents argue during every election. His father believed in the system, he said, “At least we can choose,” while his mother argued that, “Choosing between two bad options isn’t freedom,” and their family reflected the country's belief; some were content with what they had, and others wanted more. The news channels, owned by wealthy corporations, repeated party slogans, but there were a few that were non-biased, airing criticisms of the politicians. Campaign ads were the same for the first decade of Alex’s life, promising economic reform, better healthcare, and cleaner streets. Even though the leaders may not have fulfilled all their promises, each president who came and went did follow some of his promises, and slowly, life was getting better. 

By 6th grade, Alex got his first taste of what higher education looked like. The GDP per capita, which was steadily growing, was now 1.5x what it was when Alex was born. This meant that the government was spending more money on public schools and universities, and telling students that if they pursued education as a future career, they could become doctors and engineers. By the 8th grade, Liberdonia discovered rare earth metals and began to receive some International attention. Business moved in, and a new industry was created. As companies moved in, foreign investment grew, and new industries appeared almost overnight. The government would have kept the money to themselves, yet because of the citizens' rights, they pressured the government into investing in healthcare and schools. Hospitals expanded, hiring more staff and opening new wings, which led to more people getting healthier than ever. Universities built research centers dedicated to the new resources, because they wanted to be homegrown rather than relying on foreign experts. Liberdonia was still flawed, divided, and learning how to use democracy. But as Alex grew older, he saw a country that was slowly strengthening itself through people demanding better and leaders being pushed to deliver. By 18, he was going to a university and had dreams of becoming a chemical engineer. He later graduated and got a job as a chemical engineer. Liberdonia’s economy kept growing, and he married, had kids, and grew old. When he was 60, Liberdonia’s citizens had around $60,000 to their name, and the country was looking better but still capable of improving and listening to the people so that the people could have a say in their country's laws. 

On the other side of the world, Zack was born in the capital city of Dictatoria into a stable household. The leader of Dictatoria was a man by the name of Maxim Russo. Maxim was a good man, and because of his absolute power, changes were made fast and efficiently. Yet in Dictatoria, the people could not say anything negative about their leader, and they did not have many of the rights enjoyed in Liberdonia. When Zack was learning to walk, the first big change came. The government was sponsoring a company that was the main source of the country's money. Just like the British East India Company, the company was monopolized and turned out to be very successful. Not just in Dictatoria but also by trading goods to other countries. Maxim, being a “benevolent dictator,” invested in building better roads and hospitals.

At the time when Zack was 3, the economy was doing great, and people were working and prospering. But then, when he was six, the government had invested heavily in the oil industry only to discover that the country had a small amount of oil. This led them to lose a significant amount of money, which caused it to tax its citizens more heavily, resulting in less money for the people. The people wanted to speak up, they wanted to have a say, but if they uttered a single word against the leader, his police would send them to a rehabilitation camp before they could say anything else. Zack's parents told him that he should learn to love the leader because his life depended on it. Maxim did all the things that a good leader would have done to rebound. He created a program to help those who were part of the oil company, and he worked with the neighboring country to assist Dictatoria in coming out of depression. He dove into the causes of the crash to prevent that from happening again. He then decided to stop sponsoring companies to add diversity to the economy. For the next few years, the country of Dictatoria was looking great; it had a low unemployment rate, a fast-growing economy, and good morale. This started to make Maxim think that the country was ready for major modernization. He starts a Mega-Project called the One World Dam. 

Zack learns all about it in school, and he makes his science fair project on it in 6th grade. He decided that, even though the dam cost $400 billion, which was more than the country's GDP, to build the dam. He had to get loans from other countries, which came at high interest costs. He also made a drafting system so that random people would be selected to work on the dam because many workers were needed. Zack’s dad was one of the men chosen, and he was paid well for his work. Zack was so excited because the dam was his favorite thing, and he often talked to his father about construction. Yet the dam had a serious effect on the economy. Because a lot of the high-tech components of the dam were so complicated, lots of workers had to go to school, which delayed the building process. The dam was so big that many people had to build it, which caused a job shortage in other sectors. This caused another crash at the time when Zack was 15 and aspiring to become an engineer. The country this time was in deep financial ruin, the project had to be put on hold, and people were left jobless. Companies simply did not have enough money to hire people. It was at this time that rare earth metals were discovered in Dictatoria, yet the country was too busy fixing problems to take advantage of a new sector. Education was not a top priority, and many universities closed due to government budget cuts. To make things worse, Zack had to ditch his dreams to go to college and become an engineer to work in the factory to support his family. Dictatoria was recovering, and Zack was rotting away in a factory when he would rather be in school, becoming an engineer. Maxim did his best, and he got the country to the place they were at the start of Zack's life. He then passed away, causing major unrest when the person in the position of power changed. The second leader was a was just as good as Maxim. Yet the same issue followed the country, would do well, but then a crash would drag them down to where they once were. 

In the first scenario, even though the people deal with bad government and failing leaders, they at least have a say. In Dictatoria, the people were not allowed to say that their leader had done something wrong. The reason why Maxim is still a good dictator is that he is doing his best to improve the lives of the people. The fact that he sends people to a rehabilitation camp where they are “taught the truth” does not make him a bad dictator. In the Scenario, the bad leadership and slow reforms do make it hard for the country to improve, but at least it prevents one single person from deciding for the entire country. Sure, the same promises time after time might make you lose trust in the government, but wouldn’t you want to push to make them follow their promises? Liberdonia is flawed, yet people’s freedoms help pave the way to make it better. They have a way to change the government to be better. The people in Dictatoria can’t tell their peers, “Hey, Maxim’s wrong and he should do this. Because the people in Liberdonia have access to the rest of the world, they have access to examples of how other countries similar to them have grown. This is why the Congress in Liberdonia voted to expand funds to education. In Dictatoria, if Maxim doesn’t want to spend money on education one day, then he can. We must be held accountable for our actions, but what if there were no punishments for our actions? One person can be a great mind and have great judgment, yet all humans make mistakes. Yet when we work together collectively as a group, we find others' mistakes and elevate each other. That is why democracy, no matter how flawed in its form, has survived this long. Maxim wanted to build a dam worth more than his country’s GDP, so production started, but would everyone unanimously agree in Liberdonia? Think about public opinion, the press, expert voices, and the fact that a large group of people needs to agree on something. Even our constitution was debated over and had so many compromises to get people to agree with it. Would you risk having a big boom or a big crash, or just choose the safer, more linear improvement? The government in Liberdonia is at the mercy of the people; they need to think about what the public will think of them.

In Dictatoria, the people are at the mercy of the people. John Locke thought up the social contract. The social contract states that people consent to a government that protects their natural rights, and the moment their rights are not protected, the citizens are inclined to rebel against the government. Government is literally just a leadership that was put in place by the people, and their job is to protect the people and their rights. In Liberdonia, the rights are protected, so they can change and pressure their government into doing what the people want. In Dictatoria Maxim could do whatever he wanted, violate the citizens' natural rights, and they could not do anything. This makes the people of Dictatoria powerless to change their government. But, in Liberdonia, when the government kept the money to themselves, then the people stood up because they could. They could. That is what defines the differences between democracy and dictatorship, a simple change yet so big. In a dictatorship, they can’t criticise the leader, can’t do things he doesn’t seem fit, or write about what they truly feel about life there. Yet in Liberdonia, they can. They can run in the party even if the president thinks that's bad. They can say that the president is wrong, they can disagree and criticise, and it would be fine. It is not saying that they are choosing to do these things. But it means they have a choice, and that choice is protected and allowed.  

When you look closely at the paths of Liberdonia and Dictatoria, the core difference isn’t how smart or effective their leaders are, but rather it’s who holds the power to correct when things go wrong. Democracies can be messy, slow, and full of flaws, but they give ordinary people the ability to challenge decisions, demand change, and have a voice in their future. Dictatorships, even under a good leader, gamble everything on one person’s judgment. As soon as that decision-making slips and all people slip up from time to time, the entire nation pays the price. The people in Dictatoria have no way to push back and change the system or have a voice in decision-making. Liberdonia improves because its citizens can pressure their government, while Dictatoria struggles whenever its leader slips up. That's why, even in a bad form, democracy is more stable, accountable, and successful long-term. It is the simple fact that people can speak, organize, and influence their government that makes a flawed democracy far stronger and far safer than even the most efficient dictatorship. In conclusion, democracy relies on the people and their ideas as a whole to rule themselves rather than a king to rule the people, and that is why democracy has survived this whole time. 

Works Cited

Jadhav, Vivek. “Democracy, Dictatorship and People’s Beliefs: Evidence from the World Values Longitudinal Survey.” JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/27343218?seq=1

De Luca, Giacomo, Anastasia Litina, and Petros G. Sekeris. “Growth-Friendly Dictatorships.” ScienceDirect, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0147596713001145

Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. “Democracy and Dictatorship.” University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, https://clinecenter.illinois.edu/project/research-themes/democracy-and-development/democracy

Schiffbauer, Marc, and Ling Shen. “Democracy vs. Dictatorship: Comparing the Evolution of Economic Growth under Two Political Regimes.” Wiley Online Library, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-0351.2009.00371.x

Sen, Kunal, Lant Pritchett, Sabyasachi Kar, and Selim Raihan. “Democracy Versus Dictatorship? The Political Determinants of Growth Episodes.” Harvard Kennedy School / Center for Global Development, file:///C:/Users/micha/Downloads/RWP17-009_Pritchett.pdf.