PINO: A vote for dictatorship?

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By Norman Pino

COMMENTARY:

Until a suitable name is found for it, to define what is evolving in Venezuela as a dictatorship can be as wrong as calling it a democracy. Whether Venezuela is moving towards a "demodura" or "dictocracia" is not merely philosophical, nor is it a semantic debate. Though it may look like a sterile discussion, the issue is far from useless, especially under the present circumstances.

Contemporary autocratic regimes cannot be measured by the same yardstick used to assess dictatorships of the previous century; while they resemble each other, they are not able to behave in the same way, owing to both internal and external constraints. Progressively global democratic consciousness plus several nongovernmental organizations fostering democratic values, human rights and the rule of law, constitute a formidable obstacle to totalitarian governments. Today's globalized environment makes every citizen part of a world public opinion.

New autocracies must pretend to be democratic in order to be accepted as such by the international community. Today's would-be dictators no longer resort to the use of sheer force, but to less obvious ways of controlling the population, to avoid being castigated by the international community.

Perverse use of computer technology and the mass media - especially television - have largely replaced the use of physical force to repress ideas and dissent, and to instill fear. The drawing up of lists of dissidents is not a simple and casual whim of some twisted mind, but a deliberate policy of segregation with the clear intent to intimidate and punish. The endless propaganda to which the public is subjected, usually on the basis of concocted figures, half-truths or simply false allegations, is not coincidental. Much less so is the conscious adulteration of history - changing names of places and institutions, fabricating false heroes, and unlimited repetition of the most obvious myths. All this is intended to replace obsolete, politically incorrect methods.

Out of the need to maintain the appearance of a democratic government, today's autocracies must resort to more subtle forms of restricting freedom, eroding rights and subjugating wills, including:

- Frequent elections, even though the electoral authority is of questionable fairness and subject to unlimited government dominance.

- The illusion of a sound and independent judicial power, which in practice does not provide justice and is in fact a regime weapon.

- Existence of a nominally independent legislature, guided by the executive.

- An alleged constitutional and legal order, regularly violated with no institutional counterweights preventing it.