The Benefits and Consequences of Authoritarian Governance

One of the most common regimes in political history of humankind is authoritarianism. In authoritarian states, small group of people has the power to rule in the state (O’Neil, p.318). When compared to a totalitarian regime and democracy, authoritarianism seems closer to the totalitarianism, taking into account the presence of dictatorship and limitation of civil and political liberties of citizens by the ruling elite. On the flip side, some democratic features also present in some authoritarian states, in which a government does not regulate a private life of people. However, from the course of comparative politics, in particular, examples of China and Russia have shown that often the state passes all limits of ethicality when dealing with the governance. Therefore, I think that authoritarian states are more totalitarian, rather that democratic. Nevertheless, many states adopted authoritarianism, and despite most of them are now undergoing the transition to democracy, some of them “remain loyal” to non-democratic ways of the governance. In this essay, I would like to discuss the benefits of authoritarian style of policy-making, which probably provide an answer on why do some states prefer this regime, and consider consequences, by using current situations in China and Russia. It should be noted that often in authoritarian states, what is advantageous for people in charge is not beneficial for citizens.

First, the heads of authoritarian states have an absolute power and a monopoly over politics. An absolute rule gives leaders an opportunity to pass laws on their own, and even not to be bound by any laws, what produces flexible system of law-making and eases amending the constitution, and probably helps to prevent political stag...

... middle of paper ...

...l turn into blessing, or will it be the curse of nature – depend on the policy that the state adopts.

Works Cited

1. Corruption Perception Index 2011. Transparency International. http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results/

2. Energy production (kt of oil equivalent). World Development Indicators database, the World Bank. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.EGY.PROD.KT.OE

3. Gross Domestic Product. World Development Indicators database, the World Bank. http://databank.worldbank.org/databank/download/GDP.pdf

4. O’Neil P. Essentials of Comparative Politics. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. Print.

5. Ross M. Does Oil Hinder Democracy? // World Politics. 2001. Vol. 53, No 3. P. 325—361.

6. The Democracy Index 2011. Economist Intelligence Unit, the Economist. https://www.eiu.com/public/topical_report.aspx?campaignid=DemocracyIndex2011