It is harder to run a dictatorship than a democracy

Things are currently so bad in the western democracies that we tend to ignore how much worse they are in what one could politely call ‘non-democracies’. China’s policy of developing Covid in a lab, and then covering up its leak, seemed to work at the time. Western scientists, some corrupted by their links with China, helped persuade many that Beijing had the best policy for infection control. But it is increasingly clear that Chinese people themselves do not believe this and are rebelling. In Russia, Putin’s policy of war has isolated his country, humiliated his armed forces and bound his democratic enemies more closely even than did anti-Soviet feeling in the Cold War. In Iran, more than 300 people have been killed in riots against the oppression of women. Contrary to popular belief, it is much harder to run a dictatorship than a democracy. Rishi Sunak’s Lord Mayor’s Banquet speech on Monday developed the thought that our security and prosperity depend on ‘the depth of our partnerships’ with countries which, very roughly speaking, do not think like dictatorships. The countries he name-checked give clues to his thinking – the United States, Indonesia, Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Japan, the Gulf States, Israel, India. Good European relationships were emphasised, but the EU countries he singled out were Sweden and Finland – because they are joining Nato. Together with its allies Britain would ‘protect the arteries and ventricles of the global economy’, the Prime Minister said. He was politely telling China that the free world will not permit its imperial Belt and Road Initiative to take over the globe. Good. It is not an original thought, but it has been neglected: consistently oppressive and violent powers consistently threaten the rest of us.