Directed democracy, also called guided democracy, is a term sometimes used to justify the absence of anything remotely resembling Western representative democracy in developing countries. It was first formulated in the 1960s by the Pakistani leader Ayub Khan, who ruled with the support of the army. It is in many ways analogous to the Marxist concept of the leading role of the communist party during the transitional period known as the dictatorship of the proletariat. It rests fundamentally on the argument that the people in a newly-independent Third World country cannot be allowed full participation in electoral politics because they are in no position to make rational political choices. For practical reasons such as lack of general education (if not mass illiteracy) and poor communications, and also because of possible ideological hangovers from colonial times, it may be feared that the people could be easily led astray by reactionary elements.
Alternatively they might demand far more in the way of economic benefits than their country could afford, especially at a time when sacrifices might well be needed to build up heavy industry and to create a capital base for the later consumer industry. The idea of directed democracy does allow for some participation: people may join the one permitted party, or it may even be the case that other parties are allowed to exist and to have views on policy, provided they refrain from challenging the decisions ultimately taken in the public interest by ‘those who know best’. Some of the European communist states, notably what was the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), were never technically one-party states, for example, but were governed by a permanent coalition dominated by the Communist Party. The stated intention in most directed democracies is that eventually, as barriers to rational participation diminish and economic conditions improve, the people will be ‘guided’ into a democracy that can function effectively. Though the terminology is seldom used nowadays, most military regimes make very similar claims to justify their rule.
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