[Name of the Institute]

Do Authoritarian Regimes Have Any Public Support

Introduction

Authoritarianism is a type of social organization. It is described as submission to power authority of a particular group. Looking from a political view point, a tyrannical government is described as a government in which political authority remains with a small group of politicians only. Authoritarianism is usually opposite to individualism and libertarianism. It connotes the absence of free and impartial elections. In authoritarianism, there is unconstrained power present. This of course is a type of non-democratic government, in which the power and ascendancy exercised by political leaders is not controlled by the support from the masses. This form of leadership can be headed by a solitary figure or by a group. On the basis of this authoritarianism can be divided into two sub-divisions, namely Autocracy and Oligarchy. It is named autocracy when a single person acts as a head and directs the working of the government. On the other hand, it is called as oligarchy when an aristocratic ruling group of individuals look after the working of the government. This elite ruling group is sometimes called as junta (Jensen, p.1-3)

Individual leaders differ from each other considerably in the way they govern and look after the matters of the government. These individual leaders can again be classified in three different types based on the style of leadership they follow. Leaders who are to some extent bothered with civic betterment are named as benevolent autocrats. Those who are a great supporter of and display eagerness for annihilation and violence are named as tyrants. The last form of leaders is those who only care about their own interest and keep their interest above all other matter; such leaders are called as dictators. Regardless of the form of leadership expressed in an authoritarian state a ruler's interest will always be superior to the welfare of the common people, reason being that the rulers are not in any case accountable to the people of the state.

At times some of the authoritarian leaders may come to power through elections, but these elections are not free and force and violence is used to win. In such a case the basic aim of the authoritarian regime is to overthrow the current government in a coup d'état. Initially the leaders take on a belligerent status which they later on change to civilian status for the sake of appearance. One of the examples of such a case was when Nassar of Egypt who was a military commander took over the government. Later on he became the president by force. This is a perplexing game of avariciousness and maintains political power. The result of such regimes is that they are overthrown by equally or more powerful autocrats or juntas. Such political scenarios are not a new concept and have been seen in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It is the rule of nature that in a system where power is acquired through coercion, a stronger regime will snatch it ...