The Non-democratic Alternatives

Abstract

This article analyzes the principal nondemocratic regimes that have appeared in the course of past decades: different varieties of authoritarianism (personal regimes, military regimes, civic-military regimes, mobilizing regimes), totalitarianisms, and traditional regimes. Some of these appear to have definitively demised. Other nondemocratic regimes have ceased, but one can speculate that they may reappear and legitimate themselves anew. This may occur with personal regimes, religious based mobilizing regimes, and the bureaucratic regimes. Nevertheless, in regards to Western democracy, the most efficient authoritarian alternative with the greatest chances of success may be pseudo-democracy, that is a regime with some of the formal aspects of democracy, such as a constitution apparently upholding rights, elections, more than one political party, but which in fact does not guarantee rights, effective participation, and the possibility of expressing political dissent.