Can there be such a thing as a "benevolent dictatorship"

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[The Louiswu]

I am "discussing" politics with a gent from the UK on Facebook. He is advocating a "benevolent dictatorship"
My question are, can there be such a thing, is a "benevolent dictatorship" a good idea.

[Daisyjane69]

The notion of a “benevolent dictatorship” was mentioned by St. Thomas Aquinas.

Someone else can Google the history of it; I’m going to be away from my computer for a while.

All I know is it served as a family model for us. I reminded my son (constantly) that we had not a democracy under roof, but a Benevolent Dictatorship.

And I was the dictator. heh ;)

[mmichaels1970]

“And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that. All power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” - John Dalberg-Acton

Sounds familiar.....hmmm...dem congress...dem exec...

[MrsEmmaPeel]

Read the Annales of Imperial Rome by Tacitus-- the greatest Roman historian. [Try and get the Michael Grant translation]. The portraiture of power and corruption is staggering.

[PapaBear3625]

Perhaps your gent friend should just move back in with his parents. In exchange for his adult independence - their house, their rules. Quite benevolent.

In essence, a person who is in favor of "benevolent dictatorship" is an emotional child who misses the security of being with Mommy and Daddy, and does not realize that the average potential dictator is NOT going to be Mommy to him.

[Andy from Chapel Hill]

Yes, but only if I am the benevolent dictator.

[dirtboy]

Cattle enjoy benevolent dictators.

A steer has a pretty good life until someone wants a hamburger.

[Hacklehead]

No one in their right mind would be willing to test this hypothesis. Benevolence is an attitude that is subject to change. It is also in the eye of the beholder, and what you consider benevolent, I might consider oppressive. In the final analysis, no tyrant should be allowed to die in their sleep.

[tbpiper]

He is advocating a "benevolent dictatorship" My question are, can there be such a thing, is a "benevolent dictatorship" a good idea.

You have to define what the term "benevolent dictatorship" actually is. Then you have to determine what keeps the dictatorship "benevolent". Given the fundamental depravity of human nature, a "benevolent dictatorship" is just at marketing slogan for something inherently evil.

[aruanan]

Can there be such a thing as a "benevolent dictatorship"

The intent may be benevolent. The outcome will almost certainly be oppressive. The old, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

The track record of authoritarianism has been excellent in terms of its persistence throughout history and across cultures but has been abysmal in terms of knowledge (Lysenko and Soviet genetics, German anthropology and the Nazi state), in terms of human rights (the Inquisition, the Holocaust, and other pogroms, China and family planning, most post-colonial African dictatorships) and in terms of technological inventiveness (the miserable record of Soviet-style five year plans, Mao’s fixation on steel production and its disruption of the flow of goods and services, the extreme environmental damage left behind in the former Eastern bloc as a direct result of centralized control of capital, labor, and resources).

The reason for this is that such a social structure doesn’t allow the freedom for the wide range of viewpoints necessary for generating and testing hypotheses, let alone the ad hoc experimentation and innovation by individuals for their own reasons that form the basis of a developing, knowledge-based, technological society. Discovery is not allowed to take one where it will--it must be restricted to the party line (witness the vitiating of the ideal of the university by political correctness).

Given the complexity of life, the narrow range of understanding possessed by any particular group (or single person) is guaranteed to fall short at some point. Given the concentration of power exercised under a centralized system, the failures are guaranteed to have widespread and crippling effects. By contrast, the multiplicity of successes and failures over a wide range of scale that appear so chaotic in a state of liberty have the benefit of limiting the damage and of spreading throughout society successes which can be emulated and modified to fit local conditions.

[GOPJ]

You're picking up on a dem talking point. And they know that ANYTHING that's discussed lowers resistance to that idea. So, please... don't carry totalitarian water...

[ml/nj]

He is advocating a "benevolent dictatorship"

Which ones are his models?

ML/NJ

[mrmeyer]

Exactly. The answer is no. The benevolence ends when some one/some group go against the whims of the dictator. Any signs of benevolence in a dictator is a false front, a carrot and stick if you will. There is no such thing as a good evil.

[Vor Lady]

We tell our kids they live in a ‘benevolent dictatorship’ in the family. They get to vote, but my husband has veto over everything if he deems it best.

[The Louiswu]

Singapore..his only model

[John Valentine]

I wish I was the warrior king
In every language that I speak
Lord over all that I survey
And all that I see I keep
Power omnipresent
Undiminished uncontrolled
With a message violent fury
At the center of my soul

I wish I was a warrior king
Inscrutable benign
With a faceless charging power
Always at my command
Footsteps so heavy that the world shakes
My rage instilling fear, ah, ha
Yet cautious firm but fair and good
The perfect warrior king

I wish I installed angels
In every subject’s house
Agents of my goodness
No one would be without
A steak on every plate
A car for every house
And if you ever crossed me
I’d have your eyes put out

You don’t exist without me
Without me you don’t exist
And if logic won’t convinced you
Then there’s always this
I’m bigger, smarter, stronger, tough
Yet sensitive and kind
And though I could crush you like a bug
It will never cross my mind

It wouldn’t cross my mind to wring your neck
Or rip out your vicious tongue
It wouldn’t cross my mind to snap your leg like a twig
Or squash you like some slug
You are a violent messenger
And I’m not above your taunts
And if you hit me you know I’ll kill you
Because I’m the warrior king

- Lou Reed

[John Valentine]

I think it was H.L. Mencken that observed that the impulse to do good was usually in reality an impulse to gain power over others.

This so-called benevolent dictatorship is nothing more or less than fascism, isn’t it? Isn’t exactly where we are heading under the Obozo? Does anyone doubt that his basic impulse is to gain power over others?

[Andyman]

You are so right. Lee Quan Yew of Singapore was a good example of such a dictator.

[qam1]

So long as your dictator is Salomon, everything is fine.

Considering how many people he had to kill (including his own brother) to be king even he wasn't that good

Nerva to Marcus Aurelius were probably the closest to benevolent dictaors as you can get, but inevitablity Commodus and Caracella followed.

[ctdonath2]

In theory, yes - there is nothing wrong with a benevolent dictatorship ... precisely because “nothing wrong with” is implicit in the term “benevolent”. That term excludes any criticism while not supplying any realistic implementation details; usage of the term is dishonest.

In practice, no - wise, talented, charismatic, altruistic leaders are rare ... especially when applied to a nation as vast and diverse as the USA (or most modern states). No one person (or clique) can understand the complex needs/wants/interplay of 300,000,000 people they have never met; hence the importance of liberty under governance.

There’s a reason the idea didn’t get much farther than Plato some 2700 years ago. There have been maybe a dozen true “benevolent dictators” in human history; they _happen_, they are not created by fiat.

“It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it... anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. “
- Douglas Adams