An open question
November 25th, 2008 by AriTheoretically let’s say you had a country. It’s not the most developed or modern, but it’s also not third world. There are regular elections for the prime minister who has a long term (15 years), but strict term limits. There are almost no checks on the power of the prime minister though – he is the head of the army, there is no judicial review, and he can completely ignore the legislative branch if he wants. Essentially he has all the powers of a dictator, but he’s elected. Is this country still a democracy?
November 26th, 2008 at 12:43 am
For some reason, this doesn’t sound so hypothetical or theoretical. So, Ari, to which country do you refer? I tried to find out through Prof. Google, to no avail – but I’m convinced that you write about a real country, or at least a proposal currently being debated in a real country.
However, an elected dictator does not run a democracy; he runs a dictatorship.
November 26th, 2008 at 9:21 am
The cop out answer: It’s not a democracy, it’s a republic.
What that then means is the republic is only as legitimate as the will of the people is manifest in government. If the legislature is elected but ignored it would seem hard to argue that the will of the people is in fact manifest in government.
See “English Civil War” for more details.
November 26th, 2008 at 9:50 am
I would call it a “popular dictatorship”? It is a dictatorship that has the support of the people?
November 26th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
William: to answer your question, no, it’s not anything real. It was just something I was thinking of stemming from a discussion Rebecca and I had about the government of Naboo.