Italian dictator Benito Mussolini did not make the trains run on time. The myth of fascist efficiency first emerged in the 1920s, but it was always propaganda. Now, as the world struggles with a global pandemic, the idea that dictatorships are somehow more efficient than democracies is re-emerging.
Has China’s coronavirus response been a success? The Chinese city of Wuhan, which recorded the first COVID-19 outbreak in the world, tested almost its entire population in a matter of weeks and found no new cases of the virus. The way China enforced its lockdown measures has been widely described as “draconian”, yet (at the time of writing) it has suffered a much lower number of deaths than many democratic European states.
What do our readers think? We had a comment from Wasim, who thinks China’s first instinct, when COVID-19 emerged, was to suppress information about what was happening. Essentially, Wasim argues that China bungled its coronavirus response because it is an authoritarian state, allowing the virus to spread internationally. Is he right? Do democracies handle crises such as pandemics better than dictatorships? Or are dictatorships more efficient?
To get a response, we put Wasim’s comment to Sheri Berman, Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University in the US and author of the book Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe: From the Ancien Régime to the Present Day. Recently, she has been writing about the differences in response to the COVID-19 pandemic from democracies and authoritarian regimes. How would she respond to Wasim’s comment?
For another perspective, we put the same comment to Anna Wojciuk, Professor of Politics at the University of Warsaw and co-author of a recent article comparing coronavirus responses from authoritarian states and democracies. How would she respond?
Are dictatorships more efficient than democracies? Did China mishandle its Covid response because it’s a dictatorship? Let us know your thoughts and comments in the form below and we’ll take them to policymakers and experts for their reactions!
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Of course not. No more devils.
No, but some states are not created for democracy. Democracy is an invention of the Western civilisation. Countries like Russia, China, Turkey, Brazil etc. are not part of the Western civilisation.
I get what you mean, but not true. Europe had feudalism and absolute monarchy before democracy. I think it is more connected with individualism of mind. Also a good dictator can be benificial for a while, the problem arises when his children inherits. Democracy is a state of mind that can be taught and should grow by itself. Look at the growing democracy in Tunisia, at Taiwan, many African nations and even some South American ones as well.
Europe used to have feudalism and absolute monarchy until 18th century. They don’t exist since then.
By the way Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and some African countries are westernized.
Japan took western ideas and technology by themselves and utilised it very effectively in their short-lived empire and subsequent impressive economy. South Korea, it is true that they were directly westernized to combat communism but they are doing great today and haven’t looked back. Taiwan is the refuge of the self-made xginese national democratic government from the CCP. The African democracies have had the problem of inheriting western colonial systems and borders, that were designed to transfer wealth to Europe, and have therefore had some growing trouble, but many are starting to get better. Democracy is messy, but it is still the least bloody way for the population to be heard.
yes, which is my point, we had the same very undemocratic systems and still reinvented democracy a few times.
What are you on? The only functional, healthy democracies left today *are* the Eastern democracies. Only South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore are still functional. Western democracies are totally dysfunctional.
Well am not sure that France is till a democracy.. Information is controlled Facebook is screened… Demonstration are forbidden police very violent… Laws are signed by decets without the parliament.. Most orientations are decided by EU undemocratic Commission CEHD control our justice.. We are no more free to decide anything about migration cannot Expell islamists… Yes we live in, à fascist state… Many of them are thinking to live in free countries such as Poland or Tcheckie
First we need to define what’s efficiency. And what’s democracy (the US, for example, is an oligarchy). Because we all live in a society where representative democracy is taken as the end-goal and it doesn’t necessarily have to be, not for the whole world at least. In China, for example, there’s the concept of political meritocracy, where officials are trained for years and years before occupying a position of power. It surely doesn’t promote as much plurality as having different political parties, but is it better to have populists winning people over because everybody is voting for someone they don’t know much and often without being properly informed? Because we all know who’d win more votes on a debate between Adolf Hitler and, say, António Guterres.
I don’t really have a solution, but I think we should, at least, try two things: more direct democracy (Cuba, in fact, does it at a local level but there are other examples) and ranked-choice voting like the state of Maine in the US implemented.
What merit does Xi Jinping have? The man banned Winnie the Pooh over some light-hearted jokes on the Internet, and has signed off on crackpot unproven medicines. He’s infantile and nobody can even say it to his face just because he’s a dictator. What you say about populists is true, but while I could believe in Chinese technocracy before Xi, now it looks like at least as big a joke as our “democracies” with stupid electors who vote for things they don’t understand.
Depends who does the measuring !
no shame in questions like this? trying to normalize mumbo jumbo?
Well said Stella.
I’ve noticed often that the questions posted almost ‘bait’ and expose posters that are not in line with the ‘groupspeak’ answer that is wanted. Often the accompanying ‘introductory paragrahs’ of the ‘question’ serve as a platform to first give an ideological opinion whether political,social, moral… that ‘sets the tone’
Dictatorships are efficient, alright. But that efficiency comes at an unacceptable price.
TRUE! I agree with you!
No,is no true!
The only efficiency the dictators have is only for themselves.
Last time I checked, Finland did a good job & it’s not authoritarian.
Democracy as it came to be on today’s world …. Extremely well paid politicians, behind closed doors create laws and work in favour of their ex bosses not forgetting to justify their actions with some heavy words (for the good of our children ..fir our future for the greater good bla bla bla ) Majority of people without any idea of basic political thinking or judgement feeling happy to post their current complaints and thoughts on fb and Instagram occasionally small groups hit the streets to protest about their democratical rights only to be treated like disease spreading on the passive flock of citizens or even worse Dictatorship … Just replace the (democratical) elected politician’s with rulers that didn’t had the sponsors to help them or the patience to wait until they be elected
Has anyone o commented lived in a real dictatorship? Like Portugal before 1974 ou Mozambique between 1975 and 1992 or Saudi Arabia ? We can’t speak lightly about dictatorship. It’s the worst political system.
Don’t forget that Hitler was elected.
Any government has a goal to enforce its rules and standards on all of its members/participants/citizens (call them what you like) regardless of the likings of individuals so the main goal is control over the crowds in both a dictatorship and a so-called democracy. The only difference is that a dictatorship is more honest, as it does not bother creating the illusion of freedom for the fools. Both systems use unacceptable, inhuman methods of enforcement no matter what they declare. The biggest modern so-called democracies use all the filthiest methods to achieve their goals (murder, torture, terror, sabotage, manipulation etc.) just as those that are considered to be dictatorships. So are dictatorships more efficient? I think they are, as they don’t spend effort looking good in the eyes of those snowflakes who cannot accept the reality, which is the fact, that the entire globe is under a huge dictatorship.
If you have an enlightened dictator, possibly. But as soon as the dictator is replaced by an inept idiot, there is no way out. Even a generation of progress can be undone in just a few days. Ultimately the most efficient thing is for people to be educated enough to run their own affairs effectively and rationally, through a democratic political process they take seriously and are mentally capable of participating in.
I think I read somewhere that regardless of a society being democratic or autocratic, what lead to higher compliance by citizens in following covid measures was the sense of general unity and trust in the political leaders. Within democratic countries, a sense of trust in goverment has also seemed to be important in combatting it.
Trust in our institutions has been gravely eroded, and ultimately that is because our institutions have failed over and over again and continue to fail – when not malevolently (such as the invasion of Iraq over the lie of weapons of mass destruction), as a result of ineptitude (Debt crisis). Populists and certain foreign agents with a decidedly Russian sense of humour have taken advantage of that to erode trust – but if the institutions were not so corrupt and inept to begin with we would not be in this situation.
In any case, what is absolutely clear is that democracies in which the majority of the electorate have the IQ and reading level of children are simply not sustainable. The popularity contest model of politics is very easily hijacked.
In order to compare the two – we first need to achieve at least one example of democracy, which never happened so far. And would never happen, of course. Because democracy is a made-up myth, for weak to believe they are sometning.
Ask Hungary
Well, put this way is like asking if you’d be more efficient feeding yourself with energy drinks (like BlueCow) or with healthy, complete meals. Of course on short term the efficiency in the first situation would be higher, but… with what costs…?! On long term the abused body will cease to function properly and in the end most of its functions, and as well its objectives and its reasons to be , will be perverted. In the entire history dictatorships led only to poverty, alienation, abuses, disrespect for the individual, disrespect for life, oportunism and upstart. I don’t see any reasons for which things would change these days to prove contrary.
Such a silly question! Efficient? Is efficiency a value in itself? Does people put efficiency above all? North Korea has the world most efficient regime, everybody is set to perform a certain role and it seems the country is like a perfect Swiss clock: what for? Peace, justice and happiness are the values that matter, with more or less efficiency at the end of the day these are the only values people pursue, and democracy is the only regime that is able to provide for it. And yes, as all open systems democracy is vulnerable and demands a lot of work – not just cheap comments in a social network – but it’s the unique system under which nothing is irreparable and the one that allows perfectionning it.
Yes, they are very efficient in abolishing personal freedoms!
https://www.britannica.com/topic/totalitarianism
Can one believe it? The world is improving! Only Eritrea and North Korea hold such honors! What would we “amateur critics” do when forced to live in North Korea? Awful!
As there are many shades of grey, so are re-lapses by democratic governments.
• Probably no true democracies exist without pinches of totalitarianism to help it turn tight corners at times. Or is it “step by step?
• Probably no former totalitarian regimes were ever without a hew of democratic enhancements either.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/totalitarian-countries/
Isn’t a new totalitarian storm blowing from overly aggressive, innovative multinational tech/analytics corps? The AI- know it all companies- like Alphabet= Google, Twitter & Facebook, who knows us better then we know ourselves?
https://www.businessinsider.co.za/alphabet-google-company-list-2017-4?r=US&IR=T
And- If not sure- ask “Google”! And please, lets Twitter less!
I would like to say my opinion about politics.
Sometimes a dictatorship is not necessary a bad thing. When the dictator of Iraq Saddam Hussein was alive, Iraq was flourishing. There was free healthcare and education and now it is a chaos after the Americans stormed Baghdad.
In Bulgaria, the Bulgarian people think that only there the politicians lie and steal. Bulgarians think that there are no frauds or deceits by politicians in the Western World.
I would like to remind you that in Britain in 2014 the English manipulated the Scottish referendum of independence and the outcome was 55% for staying in Britain and 44% for leaving the UK. So there is also mischief in the west too. The English would like to have Scotland in the Union, because of the petrol in the Northern Sea.
The British also manipulated the vote of Independence of Australia in 1999. Where is the democracy then? There is no democracy at all. The Austrian ex-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache was accused of corruption, because of Ibiza gate.
So there is corruption and violation of democracy everywhere!
Are dictatorships more efficient than democracies?
As we in the UK, over the last weeks, are undoubtedly in the middle of some kind of coup. I do not believe the surface problems we see daily, are at all what we are being told is the true situation. I feel the indigenous people here are possibly being set up. And set up by their collective representatives. There is no way what we see taking place on the ground could be without government consent of some sort. It is not possible the tearing down of our infrastructure, the beatings of our police force, the pulling down of our historic markers, in full view of the people as a warning to them, could not be with the tacit consent of our leaders. The attackers are simple minded, as is debate taking place in our HoC. Whilst our population die from a cruel pandemic, the economy in chaos, our kids lined up starving at food banks with no school to relieve them of idiocy, these two ‘women’ MP’s choose to discus, as a priority, the, ‘I was more abused than you with racial taunts, as I am more openly exposed than you.’ Remember, we are told our population make up is only 13% ethnic. However, we are subjected to these two unrepresentative individuals who happen to be women, who have taken over our Parliamentary activity, leaving us forced to watch humiliation of our society as it falls into the abyss with this childish rant between them as their major worry. All to show we must line up behind BLM, as second class citizens, to these top drawer topics. The word laughing stock is weak to reality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON8UqIaeh_k
At the same time as this priority debate, this video is showing what is happening on our streets, and it is not a single incident. It is rampant. Note the police woman trying to persuade the onlookers not to beat her fellow officer.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=police+beaten+by+four+black+men+in+Hackney+streets
fQsQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBVUBPAnd another, there is so many I could fill the page with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUQ519EIWWw
Our democracy is being destroyed hastily by those who came to us for ‘a better life.’
And those two women, who made it to our centre of representation, want to take precious time arguing over who faced more rude name calling at school, in order to justify they are worthy of their seat today. Simple minded is an under statement.
Dictatorships are often a hidden fact of government. This situation we see here in the UK may well be a very efficient form of being under such rule, but, oblivious of it being our reality.
There is no thinking in dictatorships so no need to ask a question you can’t ask in a dictatorship. The question itself shows the inefficiency of dictators.
I think the real question today is, “are technocracies more efficient than plutocracies?”
Depends on what “efficiency” means and at what costs it comes. They can be efficient (building hospitals in days), but at what costs is what matters more for europeans in general.
hospitals were set up in days time in Spain and Italy as well.
Well, the emergency hospital built in Madrid was mostly a propaganda move, but that’s another topic to deal with.
Also when democracies proved they had the means to enforce strict quarantine measures they were called “dictatorships” by covidiots, most of them had been praising China for being an “efficient” dictatorship weeks before. 🤦🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️
I can’t see your point towards mine. Dictatorships can be efficient by force, though liberties restrictions.
Also, they cannot innovate like democracies (is this your point?), hence their efficiency comes with much more labour or from stealing technologies from others who happens to have the necessary meanings towards creation.
Of course not!!
Unfortunetly : yes.
Leftwing dictatorships are indeed dangerous.
as opposed to right-wing ones?
I clearly stated “leftwing”, dunno where you read “rightwing”.
read the question again. Did I say I read it somewhere?
so in Pinochet’s Chile people just jumped out of helicopters without parachutes for fun
so why bring it up then?
you lack the basic intelligence to have a conversation. If you point out one type of the existing two as having certain properties, you automatically imply that the other of the two does not posses the same ones.
you assume too much
he’s right, what he says is a necessary implication of what you said.
you maybe do so, I don’t. Lack of intelligence is more attributable to people making such comments, don’t you think so?
Why i am not surprised to hear this from Debate Europe. Most topics here related to leftist ideology. The dictatorship was never good because it puts crazy men in power who think is God of this earth.
dictatorships can dwell on both sides of the political spectrum. Your argument is invalid.
You habe no clue what “leftist” even means.
Read the post again. No way 8s it supporting dictatorship.
short term yes, long term no. Scale is also a factor, the smaller the scale the worse it performs, while at bigger scales you see improved effectiveness, the costs however are constant. Think of it in military terms. You can’t have flat hierarchy on the battlefield. Breaking the chain of command there leads to disasters. You can not control an army if every unit does wherever it pleases or opens up a debate on the need to go anywhere/do anything at all. At the same time you can not be in a constant war- after a certain period, you end up exhausting all of your resources, not to mention the cost in human lives. This is why you see that dictators in general take the government as a sort of military counsel and not a political unit, while constantly declaring war-alike campaigns. Such approach ensures that the public renders their existence as legitimate since the people are forced into the battlefield go-there-do-that mode(because the bad guys/events whatever). This where the indirect cost on human lives comes in. The repressions kill people, but investing in battlefield-like mentality inevitably breaks down your society to a herd of mindless animals. When you loose control over the herd, you end up with pack mentality that implements literary the survival of fittest selection model. This transforms the election process into a territorial fight and not political ideology. The winner is granted the actual pillaging, the looser is pushed away. Since this is an outcome of the elections*, that approach to governing/management gets promoted as a successful model/organic truth/ and delegated to next generations. Eventually as time passes the concept of success will change, but reality is that it is far more easy simply to elect a new dictator or one that fits into that same stereotype, and relapse than to keep the trend. Societies have tons of inertia, especially when the truths that bind them are properly linked to historical events via a consistent deliberate or not propaganda(Brexit being a great recent example).
*the wisdom of the crowd in herd-alike systems is rendered differently than the same in the hive-alike systems. In the first case you are getting a behavior model that is assumed to be applicable to the entire system. The lack of (functional) hierarchy in the herd requires the system to map the result as universal(in the scope of the system) truth. Hive alike systems on the other side are organized around functional categories where the outcome is morphed into a truth for the specific group. It is important to note that hive structures in complex environments are much more diverse in their topology and can not be directly tied to hive colonies. A cast based system although technically a hive, is closer to a system of competing herds than collaborating groups. The latter is related to the dismissive nature of interfaces between the casts.
tell me a dictatorship that’s good ?
Calling anyone a “dictatorship” just because they did a better job, is pathetic.
Is New Zealand a dictatorship too? Is China? Or maybe Russia is a democracy, because they did just as bad as EU countries?
Have you lost your collective mind?
Dictatorships CAN be more efficient. There’s no a priori reason why they can’t be. Look at China: the only reason they relatively failed with Covid is their populist ideology (they can’t admit their errors and so on – something they share with the old Soviet Union as much as with the USA). But there’s no reason why a dictatorship should be so populist.
On the contrary democracies do not seem to be very efficient, especially when it comes to serious matters such as economy (if the point of a democracy is to provide equality, wealth and safety to its citizens, then it’s more and more showing its limitations), ecology (we’re failing big time) and so on.
Clearly efficiency can’t be our only value – freedom of speech and thought is important, and crucial in order to maintain a fresh political class. But the same good values are also what put democracies in the great danger of populism – it has always been like this, since the Greeks.
Probably what we need in some some sort of compromise. We both need to maintain all the civil and social rights that we conquered (and actually extend them, obtain more etc.), and to take collective unilateral choices in order to face complex problems (such as climate change). Complex problems requires long term plans, carefully managed and executed without compromises, and I doubt a constantly changing democracy can provide that.
Some dictatorships beat, it’s time for the democrats to get hammered and since they didn’t give what people expected and took on networks that makes them almost imperfect, the tendency now is to give value to authority.
The kind of efficiency that matters the most to any system is knowing how to hold on to power.
In this democracies excel over any other system because in a democratic system people have an illusion of free choice while all true political movements are made by a couple of hundred giant capitalists who own all the media and most of the money and via a carrot and stick approach engineer public opinion and ultimately rule over the whole of western civilization and its client states.
They are not the least bit interested in everyday people or their freedom of choice, these people are the only ones who can be considered as an international element in shaping the modern world and the world order that we know today.
Like there was a solid line separating “democracies” from “dictatorships” in today’s world…
…efficient , to do what…killing people ? …
In the dictatorships the fear of authority and punishment is enormous, so that the citizens submit to the orders.
– Is this a joke?
Quite obviously not, I can’t even believe anybody would be so stupid as to even ask this question. What dictatorships are very efficient at is enabling corruption
But what an unreasonable question. Dictatorships are more efficient in censoring, in the fight against individual freedoms, in short … the Europeans are almost coming to an end … We Europeans will have to wake up and fight the radical left disguised as a democratic one growing in Europe .. … go and ask Venezuela, China, Cuba and North Korea to see its efficiency.
From my point of view, even in the biggest nightmare, I don’t think I’ve seen Europe debate this subject. I think that whoever chooses the subjects is a mentally ill person … Europe for me is the part that brought back the rebirth! At this moment we need it again!
They are more effective but only when the dictator is with good qualities
Like every government
ancient greeks believed all policies are good for something, after a long democracy ,corruption deepens so it needs oligarchy or dictatorship to clean the political world, but soon after we see that this centralized power has its flaws to the common good, so it has to change again to democracy. we today could see beyond these and balance all , but still we lack the frame of this , we don’t even have a common constitution