It was a noteworthy week for despot-watching. Chinese President Hu Jintao played host at the Shanghai Co-operation Organization, a club of nations that boasts such authoritarian heads of state as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Central Asian leaders-for-life Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan and Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan.公仔箱論壇$ B3 d; h- F' E0 ]* x' M
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was also in Beijing as an “observer” to the SCO. After griping at length about how things like human rights and democracy were Western contrivances designed to undermine their rule, the strongmen again made clear their support for the violently flailing regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.TVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。( w* ` [( k6 ]. O1 }
& f# [/ {% p% ios.tvboxnow.comDictators supporting dictators, some will say. But that one word fails to capture the range of autocracies that have developed in the post-Cold War era. It’s not fair to use the same term for Mr. Hu, Mr. Putin, Mr. Ahmadinejad and Mr. al-Assad. Russia in 2012, where there are opposition newspapers and radio stations, a relatively unfettered Internet and even some tolerance for anti-government protests, is a far freer place than today’s China." i6 T8 |5 L2 {( V/ \1 D
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Mr. Hu and his Communist Party, meanwhile, seem positively enlightened when held up alongside a thugocrat like Mr. al-Assad or King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who deprives half his population of even the most basic rights. And then there’s North Korea.TVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。; _+ Q( ?* Z+ \3 H1 ^8 F
) ?$ F1 ^' n" S) ~6 }tvb now,tvbnow,bttvbFalse democrats-Club members: Russian President Vladimir Putin; Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas; Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak; Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika; Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi; Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen* B6 M- Q; Z- `8 U% z. g3 a
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-Ex-members: Slobodan Milosevic; Hosni Mubarak公仔箱論壇- n B: s6 m. B X- r; c, W
5 f& e7 _2 t, P, E8 h; I( b公仔箱論壇-Key characteristics: They hold elections but have no intention of giving up power. Serious political rivals are jailed and their parties are outlawed on legal technicalities. Mr. Putin’s spin doctors call it “managed democracy” – giving voters the appearance of choice while ensuring they have very little to choose from on election day.
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. `- }; ^7 M% q4 y3 s. m$ `3 h% Z/ atvb now,tvbnow,bttvb-Reason for hope: Because they allow the trappings of democracy – opposition parties, some independent media, the very process of going through an election every few years – these false democracies create the possibility of change. Mr. Milosevic and Mr. Mubarak were ousted because citizens used the political space allowed them in a false democracy. Russia’s opposition has similarly been on the advance over the past seven months. The next election in Malaysia promises to be interesting.
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3 C5 Y. y7 k% H0 Z' A公仔箱論壇-Reason for despair: False democracies give the impression of being freer than they really are, which means they rarely face the kind of international pressure that the really nasty regimes get.
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resources from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/a-21st-century-checklist-of-the-new-autocrats/article4243069/ |
發表於 2012-6-27 02:10 PM
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