12
December 2025
Non-democracies
“Dictator”
is a particular term, taken in the last century from the Roman world, which
indicated that a single person interpreted the true popular will better than
elections did; therefore, following the dictator meant following the true will
of the people.
In communism, instead, it was a party that represented the true self-awareness
of the people; in monarchical absolutism it was the king who interpreted true
justice and was therefore supported by divine grace, and so on.
We can say, then, that there are democracies (of varying degrees) and
non-democracies of many kinds (in Tibet, the Dalai Lama is even the
reincarnation of his predecessor).
Now, it is not a given that one of these forms
of government is good and effective everywhere. For millennia democracy did not
exist, and now it seems to be considered the right one everywhere.
But it does not always work: consider,
for example, the American failure in trying to impose democracy in Middle
Eastern countries (by now we have given up on that).