Anyway,here's the Essay,I know it kinda sucks,but that's a by product of quoting both Bakunin and The US Declaration Of Independence...
Outline and explain the main differences between Democratic and Authoritarian forms of regime
In the world of politics all boils down to more-or-less 2 main forms of governance – the Democratic and the Autocratic ones. Although this is just a oversimplified vision of the truth, but for the purposes of this field of study the rationalization is just a tool of the science behind Comparative Politics. These two main groups should represent the basic structure of the modern political landscape,but are they absolute in terms,or are they a matter of interpretation?
When compared both forms of governance tend to diametrically oppose each other on every point of comparison like participation, power and freedom. In reality, however, the single most evident trait that distinguishes both is actually the illusion of freedom and free choice. It might seem strange,but the reality of the situation is that every choice a citizen even in the most democratic of countries are bound to a set of rules and in most cases he can not change anything alone. Therefore it might be beneficial to break down this grand illusion in three subgroups – distribution of power, freedom and equality.
Firstly,the illusion of power in both forms of governance. In fact things are simple in a authoritarian country, where you know you don't have the right to take control of your own country. Theoretically this should not be applicable to the “democratic free world”, but the truth is that the lines between these forms of governance tend to get a bit blurry. For example a trait of an authoritarian regime like totalitarianism when a single Party controls the whole government apparatus and sometimes even the entire populace with relative impunity. However, the idea behind the single party tend to lose their contrast if for example we look at Ireland, which was mostly ruled by a single party for most of its existence1, Fianna Fáil,or the current political situation in Russia, where in a free and democratic environment the populace embraces an almost totalitarianesque ruler in Vladimir Putin. This brings an interesting interpretation of the situation that actually the main difference between the two systems is that in a Democratic political environment it's supposedly easier to change the status quo when the need arises,whereas in an authoritarian the ruling minority can and will use every measure conceivable to maintain their grip on society. Therefore the illusion here is that who is more powerful – the people or the rulers,but as Ken Livingstone said “If Voting Changed Anything They'd Abolish It “,seems most apt at describing the situation.
Then it'd be beneficial to see the importance of the illusion of freedom. Again at hand is not the question if there's freedom or not,but how limited is the illusion of one. According to wikipedia the definition of freedom is “Liberty, ...a concept of political philosophy and identifies the condition in which an individual has the right to act according to his or her own will.” This however can be used to point the similarity between democracies,also dubbed “Tyrannies of Majorities”(Proudhon, Demokratie und Republik), which tend to represent not everyone,just the more numerous. Now,substitute numerous with powerful and one ends up with a textbook description of authoritarian form of government, which might seem a bit disturbing for a citizen of a “civilized” and “free” country as Ireland for example. Therefore the Illusion of freedom mainly differs in how widely its embraced by the public. Again using Ireland and its history,it becomes obvious that this principle was and still is in action here by just looking at the Geographic and Socio-demographic division of the Island,where the pro-British majority enforces its will to stay a part of the UK despite a significant and even violent opposition by the Pro-Republican minority,and the reversed situation in the “Free State”. Therefore freedom becomes an abstract term defined mostly by the current moods of society, which differs from the authoritarian regimes mostly by the simple size of the “important” part of society.
The third important feature of the Illusion is when viewed with regard to equality or a lack thereof. The ideal democracy stands on the pillar of equality-between religion,sexes or race, but that is the beauty of the final Illusion at work. In theory, “all men are created equal” with the equal right of “Life, Liberty, and [the] pursuit of Happiness” as described by the US Declaration of Independence, which in itself is a beautiful thought, except that even at the moment of its signing some of the members of Continental Congress were active slave-owners,with Thomas Jefferson and the Father of the Republic George Washington being perhaps the most prominent of them.This in itself seems to discredit the concept of equality in what was to become one of the first true beacons of Liberty,Justice and Freedom in the world. While this did eventually change, the other less known aspects of inequality are present and inherent in each and every country in the civilized world – the economic equality, but this rarely seems to come into mind when thinking about injustices, perhaps because everyone strives to be rich or perhaps because this is not the most “news-worthy – after all, since the dawn of time there were rich and there were poor... And while nominally all are nominally equal in the Democratic regimes, some people are just more “equal” than others be it in court, or in politics or whichever other aspect of modern life. And here is where the Illusion of equality divides the two forms of governance for in an authoritarian country, no one doubts where the real power lays and therefore knows that equality simply DOES NOT exist in contrast to a Democratic country, where this utopic notion of a level society and yet,some people just have better prostpects in life,because in life there are no “Slumdog Millionaires” and there are no billionaires hanging from the gallows...Perhaps Bakunin phrased the connection between freedom and equality the best - ”Political Freedom without economic equality is a pretense, a fraud, a lie; and the workers want no lying“ and herein lies the truth – the only difference between a “democracy” and an “authoritarian” form of government is that the second doesn't pretend to be something it is not.
In conclusion, the main difference between the two base groups of political systems lies squarely in the use of the Illusion be it of freedom,equality or power.
Bibliography:
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Bakunin,M. 'The Red Association', The Public domain,Accessed [21.02.2009],Available on http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/writings/ch05.htm
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Thomas Jefferson et al,'The Declaration Of Independence',The Library Of Congress, Accessed [21.02.2009], Available on http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html
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Various,'Quotes on Democracy',The Wikimedia Foundation,Accessed [21.02.2009], Available on http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Democracy
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Various,'Democracy',The Wikimedia Foundation, Accessed [21.02.2009],Available on http://en.wikipedia.org/Democracy
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Various,'Liberty',The Wikimedia Foundation, Accessed [21.02.2009],Available on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty
1A little oversimplification again,but still correct. Page 1
