Let’s discuss The Circular Riddle of Two Ds. First, democracy.
Wikipedia describes a guided democracy as “a formally democratic government that functions as a de facto autocracy, is legitimised by elections that are (ostensibly) free and fair, but does not change the State’s policies, motives and goals”. I once saw its alternative name, “managed democracy”, described in an FT commentary on Russia thus: “Democracy is where the authorities arrange the elections; managed democracy is where authorities arrange the elections and the result”.
