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Why do authoritarian states have 'Democratic' or 'People's' in their names? (thelemmy.club)
submitted 7 hours ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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Many countries include 'Democratic' or 'People's' in their names, even though they are not democratic and do not serve their people. Examples: Democratic People's Republic of Korea Lao People's Democratic Republic People's Democratic Republic of Algeria Democratic Republic of the Congo And German Democratic Republic (East Side) in 1949–1990. None of these states are democratic, power and wealth are concentrated in the hands of a small ruling elite. Who are they fooling with these names?

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[–] 5 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Elections≠Democracy. Again, you are expecting liberal west (or hegemonic) "democracy". I am not making a moral judgement of either, just trying to explain that the definition of democracy that has been shoved to the people's brain of the global north (hegemony) is not the only or the correct one.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 hours ago (1 child)

    What does hegemony mean here? And what would a non-hegemonic democracy look like?

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  • [–] 3 points 4 hours ago (1 child)

    I mean it in Gramsci's terms. For the second question I would say the ones cited by OP are good examples but horizontal organization is my preferred one, look about EZLN ways of horizontal democracy. Again not saying they are the correct or morally good ones either.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 hours ago

    the ones cited by OP are good examples

    How is North Korea a democracy?

    EZLN ways of horizontal democracy

    These seem to be distributed communities that internally use direct democracy (public assemblies). And I agree that direct democracy is a form of democracy. A very inefficient form that doesn't scale past the size of Greece or EZLN, but still a democracy.

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