Tiered Democratic Governance

Chapter 7: The Transition from Authoritarian Rule

Chapter 7: The Transition from Authoritarian Rule

“No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand.”

J. Michael Straczynski

In the previous chapter, I discussed a possible means to replace western democracy with a TDG. This chapter will discuss the transition of authoritarian rule to a TDG. By authoritarian rule, I include all other system of government, such *developing democracies, monarchies, dictatorships, and one-party states.

In many aspects, replacing an authoritarian rule with a TDG could be much easier than in a western democracy. For example, authoritarian rules usually do not have the arrogance that their system of governance is irreplaceable. And authoritarian rules have the power to start building the TDG without their citizenry's approval. The big question is why an authoritarian rule would willingly hand over responsibility of governance to its citizens.

I can see two reasons that may appeal to some authoritarian rules. First, authoritarian rules have always needed some formal or informal mechanisms to placate their population. By letting citizens feel that they are participating in building a new system of governance that will take several decades to build should give the citizenry some degree of satisfaction as well as letting the rule know where the “pressure points” are. Building the TDG may actually let the authoritarian rule reign longer than it normally would.

Second, history has not been kind to authoritarian rule of the last century. If any authoritarian rule just runs their country for several decades before its eventual fall, very likely history will not look favorably on it. However if the authoritarian rule—in its several decades of reign it traditionally has—actually builds the TDG that eventually forms the government to replace the authoritarian rule, history will judge these rules very favorably.

Will the world's authoritarian rules be moved to start building a TDG? Most won't. But the world needs only one to two authoritarian rules to show this can be done. Such rules should be able get their TDGs working well before any western democracy can. What a place in history!

*By developing democracies, I mean democratic nations who have a reasonable possibility of losing their democracy. A good sign of a mature democracy is when the parties no longer rely on massive voter fraud to win elections and the party in power willingly relinquishes power when it loses the election.

The Nature of TDG Building

The TDG principles for building the TDG under an authoritarian rule are the same as for a western democracy:

1.      Tiered, indirect elections.

2.      Decisions by consultation.

3.      An appointed advisory board.

I believe I have acquired a reasonable idea of how western democracies work, and this knowledge has allowed me to speculate on a somewhat thorough process for transitioning from western democracy to the TDG. I have to admit, however, that I don't understand fully how authoritarian rules keep civil order (force and fear do not explain everything). And I suspect the societal glue that keeps order varies considerably from one authoritarian rule to another. Therefore my transitional suggestions are only suggestions for any authoritarian rule wishing to go through the TDG process in a few decades. I suspect each authoritarian rule is going to have to invent some transitional processes specifically for its own TDG evolution.

The Experiment

To start building the TDG, the authoritarian rule should pick a small area of the country, maybe about 20,000 citizens (or maybe several areas of this population size). Leave the rest of the country alone for a few more years.