Xiaoguang Wang: Democracy and Tyranny
Democracy and tyranny are two very different systems. Their differences can be included into four main points below.
The first difference is the way to elect a governor. Under a democratic system, from the highest level to districts candidates, the only way to elect a governor is decided by the number of the vote people who vote for. In other words, no one can use their social position or other methods to manipulate and gain the position—unless you get the most votes. However, under a tyrannical system, who will become a government official is not determined by votes, but the higher-level officials. I have experienced a election in China. It was a election for mayor of a province capital. In the end, the candidate became only one person. And this phenomenon was named “one-one election”( there is only one candidate, you can choose him/her or not). How can this be a democratic election on the earth? It is not a election, but a farce.
The second point is related to the power of the highest leader. Under the system of democracy, it is true that the highest leader has a huge power, but the power is restricted largely. The three branch system (Legislative, Executive, Judicial limit one-another) limits the power of the highest leader so he/she cannot do anything he/she wants. This situation is also applied to the states and cities’ governors. Everyone should respect the law and no one can break the law without being punished. No one will dare to try to go against the law. But in a tyrannical political system, the highest leader can save all those troubles. He/she can choose the governor he/she likes without any process of law involved.
The third point is the way to supervise the highest leader. Under the democratic system, whether the highest leader or general governors are disciplined by law and constitution. To some extent, the highest leader may face restriction that is more rigid, even a little mistake will put he/she at stake. Whereas, under the tyrannical system, the highest leader has no those worries at all. Any information of the highest leader is considered to be the country’s top secret. The citizen have no way to know it and no media would dare to attack their highest leader—whether his/her policy or personal life. The reason for this is simple. There is no press freedom under tyranny. All media are controlled or established by the government so it will be funny if the government tries to attack or kick themselves off the stage. Yet, under the democratic system, the freedom of press is called the fourth branch, which is very powerful. Within this system, if one becomes a government officer, he/she should be aware of his/her behavior all the time, and even his/her friends, relatives and family should discipline themselves. Otherwise, the tiny things such as his/her family driving after drunk or drinking alcohol under legal age would become a title line of next day’s newspaper even before they know it. One telling example is Bill Clinton’s affair, which became the biggest news in the world. And that event nearly threw out his presidency. Under the tyrannical system, this situation is rarely to meet. Because news are all controlled by the government, so it is nearly impossible to see any criticism towards the governors, especially the ones in a relative higher position—unless the governors that have already been investigated and are about to be punished.
The fourth point of the disparity is that under the democratic system, the highest leader only believes in and obeys to the law. Law is the highest rule that should be respected. They won’t create a certain ideology, consciousness or ism and indoctrinate their theory to the citizen through elementary to college textbooks and let their theory becomes standardized value or opinion for the whole subject. This can be considered as the most differences between democracy and tyranny.
Neither democracy nor tyranny is perfect. A perfect political form or system never exists in the past, today and future. In China, there is a old proverb: no one hundred percent pure gold, no one hundred percent perfect man. This is the same to the political system. Comparatively, democratic system is a political form with less defects and prefers the benefit of the majority, that’s all it about.
Xiaoguang Wang
2006-4-28
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