Are the UK and China Authoritarian? (programming.dev)

submitted 4 days ago by CoderSupreme@programming.dev to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I've often heard that China is authoritarian, particularly due to events like the suppression of student protests in Hong Kong. However, I'm curious about more recent examples. Conversely, I've been hearing about the UK's Online Safety Act being used to target Wikipedia editors and silence protests, which raises questions about authoritarian tendencies there as well. What specific examples do you have that demonstrate whether these countries are authoritarian or not?

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[-] Zwrt@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 4 days ago

Is there a centralised rule controlling organization (state) Does that organisation have a monopoly on violence?

If yes, that organisation/state is authoritarian. People have to abide to their will and dissenting to hard will be punished.

[-] CoderSupreme@programming.dev 6 points 4 days ago

All states are authoritarian according to this answer.

[-] BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 9 points 4 days ago

Correct

this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2025

17 points (77.4% liked)

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