[ilamont]

When strongman-based cults of personality (real or wannabe) appoint themselves ruler for life, policy can go off the rails. Wars, purges, persecution of minority groups, and civil unrest are more likely. Corrupt systems of checks and balances, which may have already been weak, slide ever further.

Mao, Stalin, Chavez, Castro, Hitler, Mussolini, Chiang Kai-Shek ... a few of these strongmen presided over brief periods of spectacular economic growth, but always under unsustainable conditions. Many citizens (and the citizens of neighboring countries) paid a terrible price.

[kevin_thibedeau]

And then there's Singapore. Ruled by an authoritarian, gum hating despot who provides nice civic infrastructure for the populace.

[ericd]

When you have a great king, it's among the best forms of government. The problem is that that great king's successor is probably not also great, and under a bad ruler, it's among the worst forms of government, and that bad king can last for your entire lifetime.

It's never spectacularly efficient, but the US' form of democracy is meant to be much lower variance. I think it's a good tradeoff.

[liberte82]

> When you have a great king, it's among the best forms of government.

citation needed

[AnimalMuppet]

Singapore, as kevin_thibedeaux said.

[ericd]

What kind of citation would you put there?

[aoner]

King of Bhutan?

[narrator]

With a dictatorship it really depends on the competence of the leadership. This is not a robust strategy for organizing human civilizations.

[jack9]

Really? Because stable singular hierarchies is exactly how we evolved to have civilization.

[disgruntledphd2]

Not sure if I would agree, given that estimates suggest that homo sapiens had evolved approx 400k years ago, and most of recorded history (with the somewhat stable hierarchies) lasts, at most, 20k years. So potentially much of recorded history, but certainly not proven to be necessary for evolution.

[balthasar]

Typo there with Chavez? Democratically elected and rose the quality of life of Venezuela.

[zentiggr]

Typo there with _rose_ quality of life in Venezuela?

Pretty sure we've watched that 'democratic' experiment fail spectacularly, at least what news I know of the economy and living conditions in general seem very poor at best. Failed state comes to mind.

[balthasar]

What is the link between Chavez's policies and Venezuela's current economic condition?

[princekolt]

Maduro served both as a Foreign Affairs Minister and as a Vice President under Chavez. He is basically maintaining the government project of Chavez.

[lovich]

What's the link between yesterday and today?

Chavez was the previous ruler and hasn't been gone so long that the systems he set up have been washed away by time

[balthasar]

The self exploding system just add water. Really neat innovator this Chavez guy!

[phyller]

He might have raised the quality of life temporarily (I'm not sure even about that), but what is happening now in Venezuela was practically inevitable. You might be warmer for a little while as you take apart your house and burn it piece by piece, but in the end you will more assuredly freeze. In my opinion, it was a great tragedy that Chavez is not still alive today. Now people can say ridiculous things like this. If he was alive today, Venezuela would still be collapsing and it would be clear whose fault it was.

[balthasar]

Yes. Perhaps it was inevitable. For what reasons though?

[protoplant]

Economists believe that hyperinflations are caused by large persistent government deficits financed primarily by money creation (rather than by borrowing or by increasing taxation). --wikipedia.

Eli5 Their economy was mostly oil, they seized assets of oil companies extracting it. People left then oil crashed and they had too many promises to pay for

[balthasar]

Indeed nationalization of national resources as an explanation of economic collapse is something a five year old would say.

[protoplant]

It was not simply that they "nationalized oil" in my example, as the resources we're already state owned. You seem to not be serious with your comments.

[ilamont]

Hitler came to power on top of a democratic system, too (IIRC, by leveraging political alliances and grassroots violence in the pre-1933 parliamentary system). He surely improved the quality of life for the Nazi base in the mid-30s after he took power.

Didn't stop him from dismantling democratic institutions, eliminating all political rivals, invading his neighbors, and murdering millions of people.

[balthasar]

Chavez did none of these things. Is your knowledge of history so shallow that you must bring up Hitler appro to nothing every chance that you get?

[AnimalMuppet]

Chavez definitely dismantled democracy in Venezuela. (If you want to be technical, he started the project, and Maduro finished it.)

Specifically, vote count manipulation, the Supreme Court refusing to allow opposition legislatures to be seated, the constitutional committee stripping the legislature of its power... that's dismantling democracy.