Thursday, September 03, 2009

A quick primer into 3-rd world dictatorships.

The Reason magazine has an article that looks at the Third World dictatorships. It's an easy read and shows that Serj Sargsian or the ruling regime in Armenia are not really unique.

[...] The most common misunderstanding centers on the fact that all governments, even dictatorships, need some form of legitimacy to justify their rule to their own people. Otherwise they must revert to brute force, which is both expensive and corrupting to the police and army, who then abuse their respective powers and cause growing public resentment and anger. But while force and fear are temporarily effective, they are not enough for the longer term. A foreign threat thus helps dictators, as it is used to justify their despotic rule. Economic blockades can actually reinforce dictators' power and indeed even make their cohorts richer as they profit from the consequent smuggling and black markets. In the eyes and minds of the conquered, American soldiers certainly do not have "legitimacy," as we have repeatedly learned. [...]

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nazarian,

If or when Serge gets the Nobel Peace Prize this year alongside Gul, will you explode from your anger or will you have the decency to congratulate him?

After all on one side are "accusations" of being a dictator. On the other side a Nobel Peace Prize (I wonder which one will the world believe?)

Or if that happens will you change your blog name to "Azat Ankakh Serjastan?" Seriously...let's make a bet.

Anonymous said...

The Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 (I'm sorry)

Ankakh_Hayastan said...

I highly doubt that he will get a Nobel Peace Prize. Even if he does, it doesn't mean that he is not a Third World dictator.