Many countries in the world are democracies. This means that the citizens are directly involved in government affairs. Authoritarian governments are also present although very few. This regime does allow citizens in matters of state as the leaders have subjected forced a rule on the citizens. Citizens are not able to enjoy the freedom of speech, free and fair elections and the rule of law. Therefore, democracy is an effective form of governance as it represents the needs of the public.
In the modern world, there are less authoritarian governments compared to democracies. This is because of increased awareness and progress of democracy. To start with, authoritarian government is a regime which has forced its rule upon its citizen without their approval. On the other hand, a democratic government is characterized by representative rule where the citizens are directly involved in selecting their leaders. Authoritarian regimes do not have elections as the leaders have amassed a lot of power and wealth thus subjecting the citizens to forceful rule. They have the power to rule as long as they can without scared of anyone. They are not accountable to anyone thus ruling upon their wish. In such governments, alternative organizations or movements that oppose the incumbent rule might face punishments such as torture or imprisonment (Diamond et al. 2016).
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On the flipside, this never occurs in a democratic government which is accountable to its citizens. The leaders are chosen by the electorate in a free and fair public election. Hence, the leaders must represent the interests and needs of the public. Failure to that, the leaders will not be voted again in the next elections. There are transparency and oversight organizations which review and assess the performance of the existing rule (Caramani, 2017). This makes a huge difference as far as progress is concerned with a state. In authoritarian governments, economic progress is stagnant as the leader focuses on selfish interests rather than developing the nation. This is evident in nations such Iraq where the nation has failed to sustain its citizens. Single party states are also under the authoritarian rule as they only allow one party in the elections. China is a good example where the China Communist Party (CCP) is the only party that is involved in the elections (Diamond et al. 2016). When the leader of such a party accumulates more power, he can subject it to the citizens thus leading to authoritarian rule. Democracies have multiple parties in the elections, and the citizens are allowed to vote for their leader.
Government systems are failing to uphold the democratic principles which guide them. It is becoming so rare to find government systems being truly democratic as the represented leaders do not represent the citizens (Caramani, 2017). This has led to reduced trust to the government and less participation in elections. However, the US is a unique stat where democracy thrives because the president has no powers for self-rule due to the many checks and balances to uphold democracy. The executive, Congress and the judiciary are independent of each other thus limiting interference of power.
In conclusion, authoritarian rule is less effective compared to democracy. This is because its impacts on the citizens and the state are far too disastrous. It impoverished the economic capability and standards of living. On the other hand, democracies are effective as they represent the needs of the public thus ruling is steered towards development and progress. In addition, there are checks and balances to monitor and minimize the power of leaders in order to achieve democracy. Democratic nations are way too ahead of authoritarian governments in terms of economic, social and political development. However, democracies are not saints as they also face their own unique challenges such as misrepresentation of the citizens.
References
Caramani, D. (2017). Comparative politics . Oxford University Press.
Diamond, L., Plattner, M.F., & Walker, C. (2016). Authoritarianism goes global: the challenge to democracy . JHU Press.
