Blog Post #4 – How do democracies turn into dictatorships?

What are some historical examples of powerful democracies falling into authoritarianism?

Welcome back to my inquiry project! Last post I talked about the differences and demonstrated the specifics about the two major systems of government: democracy and dictatorship. This time, I will be delving into examples of how historical democracies have fallen into authoritarianism. Even though many of the examples I will mention were seemingly resilient and powerful on the global scene during their respective time periods, you will soon see that all that was between them and dictatorship was a charming psychopath and a temporarily unstable economic position.

We will start with Ancient Athens. As you may be aware if you paid attention in history class, ancient Greece has had a interesting time with democracy. You may know about its TV famous brother, Sparta, which was far from a democracy [5]. While Sparta was incredibly aggressive, nationalistic, and had a culture based on war, Athens was geared more towards academic and philosophical pursuits. Known at one point as a beacon of democracy, Athens pioneered the concept of citizen participation in governance. Unfortunately, Athens was faced with the rise of bad actors, such as Alcibiades, during the Peloponnesian War. These demagogues manipulated public sentiment for personal gain and towards tyranny. The once great democratic system of Athens slowly faltered and lead to a decline in democratic principles and the loss of political freedoms [6].

Similarly to Athens, the Roman Republic was renowned for its representative institutions and republican values. However, with the expansion of the state, military generals like Julius Caesar exploited their cult of personality and manipulated the political landscape to slowly centralize authority. Even though Caesar was famously assassinated, this only served as a roadblock in the path toward full-blown authoritarianism. Julius Caesar’s adopted heir, Octavian, established the Roman Empire, which marked the end of the republic and the meteoric rise of autocratic rule in the area [4].

Nearly two thousand years later, a similar story would yet again repeat itself. With the aim of fostering stability and democracy, Germany’s Weimar Republic was formed in the aftermath of the First World War. The republic was named after the town where it was founded by a national assembly after Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated [7]. Sadly, the short-lived republic was fraught with issues, as economic turmoil, social unrest, and the harsh terms imposed by the Treaty of Versailles created a breeding ground for extremism. A man you have likely heard of, who goes by the name Adolf Hitler, took a page out of Alcibiades’ playbook and used his cult of personality to exploit these unstable conditions. Ultimately, Hitler capitalized on democratic institutions to seize power legally, which makes him one of the most important cases to study if we which to avoid a slow descent into dictatorship [3].

Like the Weimar Republic before it, the Republic of Chile faced immense economic challenges and political polarization in the early 1970s. General Augusto Pinochet, recognizing the weakness in his country’s democratic mechanisms, used the military to stage a coup in 1973. Under the guise of restoring stability, Pinochet suspended civil liberties, violated human rights, and crushed dissent, killing and torturing thousands of his own citizens [8]. While Chile is one of the most economically and socially stable nations in South America today [2], the Pinochet era demonstrated how quickly everything could be stripped from its people and how propaganda could be used to manipulate and confuse the public [8].

My last example and coincidentally another republic (watch out United States) is the Republic of Turkey. In my opinion, Turkey is the most interesting example on my list, as it demonstrates a particular type of dictatorship which is often overlooked: the Illegitimate Democracy. While the Muslim world has been known for having many authoritarian states, Turkey was regarded as a model secular democracy for decades. Unfortunately, under the presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, many democratic principles and mechanisms have been undermined. Through crackdowns on the media, purges of political opponents, and constitutional changes, Erdogan transformed Turkey into an autocratic state by centralizing and consolidating his power, all the while maintaining the facade of a functioning democratic government [1].

All in all, democracies, even long-standing and powerful ones falling to authoritarianism is not a new story. The unfortunate reality is that, when faced with the allure of “quick fixes” associated with dictatorships, many democracies are vulnerable to collapse. While a state might be a beacon of democracy for many, when dark times come, those same people will likely forget the importance of rights and freedoms and desperately jump into the arms of the first charismatic leader that comes their way. These cautionary tales remind us of the need for eternal vigilance to safeguard democratic values, protect individual rights, and preserve the freedoms that every one of us holds so dearly. In my next post, I will be going more in-depth on how and why a democratic country could transition into a dictatorship and what warning signs we should look out for if we want to avoid a fate like I have mentioned earlier in this post.

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