| Part of the Politics series |
| Basic forms of government |
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| List of forms of government |
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| Part of the Politics series |
| Democracy |
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Guided democracy, also called managed democracy,[1] is a formally democratic government that functions as a de facto authoritarian government or in some cases, as an autocratic government. Such governments are legitimized by elections that are free and fair, but do not change the state's policies, motives, and goals.[2]
In other words, the government controls elections so that the people can exercise all their rights without truly changing public policy. While they follow basic democratic principles, there can be major deviations towards authoritarianism. Under managed democracy, the state's continuous use of propaganda techniques prevents the electorate from having a significant impact on policy.[3]
After World War II, the term was used in Indonesia for the approach to government under the Sukarno administration from 1957 to 1966. It is today widely employed in Russia, where it was introduced into common practice by Kremlin theorists, in particular Gleb Pavlovsky.[4] Princeton University professor Sheldon Wolin describes this process as inverted totalitarianism for a growing tendency inside the US.[citation needed]
