We cannot deny that democracy is probably the most ideal form of government that man has come up with so far. By giving citizens the ability to decide their own fate and having the majority represented by those in power, in theory, you really cannot go wrong. But that is the problem.
"Human nature does not abide by theory."
Throughout the years, humans all over the world have found so many ways to exploit democracy to suit their own interests. Benevolent dictatorships, on the other hand, are a lot more in line with how humans work. In the Park Chung Hee era (1961--1979), for instance, South Korea was transformed from a war-devastated poor country with a corrupt and fragile democracy to an economic powerhouse featuring a highly authoritarian regime.
Economists have long argued that political institutions impact economic growth. Much of the debate has centered on whether economic growth is higher in democracies or dictatorships, but recently scholars have started to look at specific political institutions within democracies, within authoritarian regimes, and across both democracies and dictatorships.
When dictatorships are in power, certain nations' economies rise at astounding rates. Some autocratic regimes have remarkably developed---no, radically transformed---their economies in recent decades despite their grave shortcomings in other domains. The transition from relational exchange, where performance is supported by government action, whether on the basis of the potential for third-party enforcement or by the threat of informal sanctions imposed by the government, has been managed by an autocratic regime at a crucial point in the country's economic development.
Do economically benevolent dictatorships really exist? How does the leader of the regime manage his authority to raise the status of his country? Despite the monstrous act, why do some people support and devote themselves to authoritarians?
Authoritarian, Not Totalitarian
We must be able to distinguish between authoritarianism and totalitarianism before delving further into the subject. Simply defined, there are a few social and economic institutions in an authoritarian society that are not under the jurisdiction of the government. As a result, the authoritarian regime only seeks absolute political authority. On the other side, the totalitarian political system seeks to dominate everything. They start to encroach on everyone they are in charge of's ideas because of a desire for power that transcends governmental control.
The manner their rules are put into practice is another significant distinction. The authoritarian ruler is more focused on individual power, while the totalitarian ruler is more of a charming ideologist who claims to have the best interest of the people or the state in mind. Totalitarian phenomena like "brainwashing," "killing fields," "ethnic cleansing," "mass graves," and "genocide" are well-known. The grim reality of archetypal examples like the USSR under Stalin and Nazi Germany confronted totalitarianism.
In this article, we are referring to authoritarian rather than totalitarian, from an economic perspective.
