Graeme Robertson outlines truths about dictatorships. Among them:
[S]uggesting that dictators can force better policies upon their people assumes that a dictator is likely to know what those better policies are. The idea that there are technocratic solutions to most economic, social, and environmental problems might be comforting, but it is usually wrong. Such questions rarely have purely technical, apolitical answers — and only in a democracy can they be aired and answered in a way that, if not entirely fair, is at least broadly acceptable.
The Dish 