His advocates say this was the only way to wrench a corrupt post-Soviet state into the modern age; critics say he created an autocracy, surrounding himself with a clique of loyalists.
If they were in any sense right, and if Aldrich had any right in his contention, the difference was this: The Aldrich measure practically created an autocracy of finance by bankers not governed by law, whereas the Glass-Owen measure placed the entire control of the currency of the nation in the hands of officials selected and paid by the Government.
This has been the historical role of the Brotherhood – with periods of shameful collaboration with British occupiers and Egyptian military dictators – and a return to the darkness suggests only two outcomes: that the Brotherhood will be extinguished in violence, or will succeed at some far distant date – heaven spare Egypt such a fate – in creating an Islamist autocracy.
Sooner or later, the attempt to create an alternative empire of autocracy and corruption in the center of 21st-century Europe will collapse of its own weight.
Because regime type tends to diffuse across borders, particularly to neighboring states, any accumulation of autocracies could create an "autocratizing" momentum that would be difficult to reverse.
Although executive powers usually have higher decision-making leverage in autocracies compared to liberal democracies, where democratic oversight and power balances create an inbuilt need for compromise, this overlooks the fact that non-democratic regimes also need to sustain their legitimacy and survival (Brooker, 2014; Bueno de Mesquita, Smith, Siverson, & Morrow, 2003).
But many Ecuadorians worry that the left-wing populist president is creating a Venezuelan-style autocracy.In championing the new constitution, Mr Correa has certainly followed the path of two fellow leftist presidents, Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia.
Some Cubans fondly remember his personal involvement in the daily problems of individual citizens, while others say he created a leader-dependent autocracy that remains virtually immobile without direct commands from the president. .
Its aim was to encourage industrious peasants to acquire their own land, and ultimately to create a class of prosperous, conservative, small farmers that would be a stabilizing influence in the countryside and would support the autocracy.
He said he would create a "transparency commission," an independent citizen's council backed by federal law, to "do the work of finding the truth," as part of Mexico's transition from autocracy to democracy.
And no country should imagine that by becoming as autocratic as China, it will automatically become as dynamic as China is.What about the argument that autocracy creates a modicum of stability without which growth is impossible?
