Guided democracy, also called managed democracy, is a formally democratic

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

that functions as a ''de facto'' authoritarian government or in some cases, as an autocratic government. Such hybrid regimes are legitimized by elections that are free and fair, but do not change the state's policies, motives, and goals. In other words, the government controls elections so that the people can exercise all their rights without truly changing public policy. While they follow basic democratic principles, there can be major deviations towards

authoritarianism Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic voti ...

. Under managed democracy, the state's continuous use of

propaganda techniques A number of propaganda techniques based on social psychology, social psychological research are used to generate propaganda. Many of these same techniques can be classified as Informal fallacy, logical fallacies, since propagandists use arguments ...

prevents the electorate from having a significant impact on policy. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the term was used in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

for the approach to government under the Sukarno administration from 1957 to 1966. It is today widely employed in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, where it was introduced into common practice by Kremlin theorists, in particular Gleb Pavlovsky. The Sanacja regime that governed

interwar Poland The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

from 1926 to 1939 is considered an example of guided democracy. The regime retained much of the structures and institutions of Polish

parliamentary democracy A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

, even though

Józef Piłsudski Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Naczelnik państwa, Chief of State (1918–1922) and Marshal of Poland, First Marshal of Second Polish Republic, Poland (from 1920). He was ...

exercised such large influence on the government that he "assumed some of the postures of a dictator". The opposition sat in the parliament and local governments, and political parties were allowed to function legally. Polish historian notes that elections under Piłsudski's regime were still organised along the principles of parliamentary democracy, and the Sanacja regime was genuinely popular as the opposition parties were blamed for failing to prevent the Great Depression. While the actions of the opposition were hampered, repressions were rare and only two parties were banned -

Camp of Great Poland Camp of Great Poland ( pl, Obóz Wielkiej Polski, OWP) was a far-right,Obóz Wielkiej Polski
,

and National Radical Camp.

References

External links

Managed Democracy
(July 8, 2005, ''

The Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' is an independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking tourists and expatriates s ...

'' article discussing the managed democracy in Russia) {{DEFAULTSORT:Guided Democracy Mixed government Propaganda Types of democracy

See also

References

External links