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

submitted 3 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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[-] limer@lemmy.ml -4 points 3 days ago

Yes, as practiced it’s mostly theatrics and the working class does not take power due to many controls and mental conditioning.

Democracy gives the illusion of control.

But many of these countries are by definition democracies

[-] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 11 points 3 days ago

I don't really agree. Most definitions of democracy center the majority, or the people, as the source of political power. I'd agree if you were talking about voting, but we are talking about democracy overall.

[-] limer@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago

Historically, democracy only allowed free males who were land owners to vote. A minority.

In the last few generations the wealthy have come up with clever ideas to hold onto power while expanding the vote to the majority.

So, I think Democracy is defined by periodically changing some of the government by the voting of some people. And the votes must be counted in front of witnesses.

This is my definition of democracy only; and not me arguing for it, personally I don’t think it works well enough

[-] BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago

Ok, and China does that

this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2025

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