Democratic Dictatorship

The Democratic Dictatorship is often dismissed as a contradiction of terms. However, not only can it exist, but some Colonies practice it.

Definition

A Democratic Dictatorship is a form of government where each individuals role and actions are dictated to him by an outside entity, as in a dictatorship, only instead of a single person with power, the decisions are made by a democratic vote.

Example

Alice, Bob, and Carl Jr. are members of a Democratic Dictatorship. First, they vote on Alice's task. Alice wants to repair the hydraulic bay. They vote on the matter, and Alice, Bob, and Carl all vote for Alice to repair the hydraulic bay. This is now Alice's assigned task. They then vote on Bob's task. Bob wants to paint the Rift, but Alice and Carl think his skills would be of better use in the chemistry lab, so they vote for him to work on food synthesizing.

Practice

In practice, this only works for very small groups that know each others capabilities well. For larger groups, it is too time consuming to collect the votes to dictate everything, and not everyone is as well informed as they should be. Because of this, it only really works for small groups, making it suitable for crews on spacecraft and small colonies. Some of the smaller worlds of Trekar use this system, at least partially.

In cases where a legitimate authority is lost, such as the captain of a ship dieing, if a pre-established chain of command does not exist for who is in charge, a democratic dictatorship will often fill the gap until a better system can be installed.

Aquil Hakim