Democracy Is Bad: Difference between revisions

* The DC comics character Anarky is, well, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|a teen anarchist]] with strong views on how democracy has failed and should be overthrown.

* ''[[Transmetropolitan]]'':

* Used in a ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' storyline. A referendum is held in Mega-City One - a literal police state - about whether to restore democracy. But at this point, the city has been a dictatorship for over 40 years, so the overwhelming majority of those who even bothered to vote choose to maintain the status quo.

* Marvel often dips its toe into this in issues of ''What If...?'' where Doctor Doom does in fact conquer the world. Without all that meddlesome democracy getting in his way, Doom usually ushers in a [[Mary Suetopia|glorious Utopia that just so happens to line up with the writer's own beliefs]]. Remember, kids, benevolent fascism is the way to go!

** In ''[[Time Enough for Love]]'' Lazarus Long states that he set up Secundus as a "constitutional dictatorship" where the ruling class has some say in government and the common folk, "bless their flabby black hearts", get none. But he's a little surprised that the government has persisted for nearly two thousand years, he expected it to collapse in a century or two.

* Even ''[[Discworld]]'' has the occasional stab at committees and one off-hand joke about a species of Republican Bees, who spend most of their time in the hive, voting for more honey. Really, Pratchett seems to prefer the idea of Philosopher Kings. Ephebian 'democracy' (it's a country in Discworld) is referenced on occasion, and criticized for its ironic prenclusion of women, poor people, idiots, people who weren't our kind of people, et cetera. Ephebe is basically a humorous version of Athens at its height, and is a fairly accurate description. Athenians invented Democracy, or rule by the '''citizens'''. What modern people forget is that in Athens, the citizens were a minority of the total population. In ''[[Discworld/Pyramids|Pyramids]]'', Pteppic notes:

** Then there's benevolent tyrant of Ankh-Morpork, Lord Vetinari, who considers his job much more difficult than any elected head of state's: after all, ''they'' can always tell the public that it's their fault for voting for them. in the latest offering, "[[Discworld/Unseen Academicals|Unseen Academicals]]" we discover nearby city state Pseudopolis has apparently become a republic of some kind, and Vetinari and a few others enjoy making comments about this. Apparently the citizens voted not to have any taxes for one thing.

** Sam Vimes, cynical bastard that he is, notes in "[[Discworld/The Fifth Elephant|The Fifth Elephant]]":

** This is probably because his ancestor "Old Stoneface" Vimes (an [[Expy]] of Oliver Cromwell) had a bad experience with it:

* The Amazon review for the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' book "Soul of the Fire" notes much fantasy has this trope implicitly, and that that book makes it very very explicit.

* [[Tom Holt]]'s ''A Song For Nero'' features an allegorical aside in which a city-state tries to create the "perfect" system of government, by combining the best features of Athenian democracy (everyone gets a say) and oligarchy (rule by an elite). One suggestion is essentially modern democracy (you vote for the leaders, and then they're in total control for a certain period), which is derided as combining the ''worst'' elements of both. (Namely, that oligarchic elites spend all their time fighting each other for status, and leaders who are reliant on the will of the people give them what they want, not what they need.)

* [[Dichter Und Denker|German philosopher]] Oswald Spengler's non-fiction book ''[[The Decline of the West]]''.

* In the [[Star Trek Novel Verse]], the Tzenkethi nation holds this opinion, which is why they're so opposed to the United Federation of Planets. Tzenkethi are assigned to politics if they pass a series of tests determining intellect and other qualities. In [[Star Trek: Typhon Pact]], a Tzenkethi agent reflects on the concept of allowing ''anyone'' a political voice:

* Tris from the [[Circle of Magic]] books believes this (the book itself doesn't endorse her opinion, but no one ever contests it either). In ''Shatterglass'', she's visiting the [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|ancient-Greece-inspired]] city-state of Tharios, a republic with a serious [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] problem, and reflects on how easy it is to pass the buck in this environment; when there's one ruler of a country, he or she might suck, but at least then everyone knows who to blame.

* In [[Isaac Asimov]] 's Forward the Foundation (the last prequel to the Foundation Trilogy), one of protagonist Hari Seldon's adversaries is a political movement that call for some vague reforms of the Galactic Empire (an absolute monarchy that is said to have brought peace and prosperity for millennia). The movement is shown to have some popular support but also to be prone to demagoguery, lies, manipulation and terrorism. At one point two leaders of the movement discuss their goals and one of them fears that the regime they are actually trying to establish is a "democracy" which he describes as a now-forgotten regime that was tried a few times through history but was always unstable and short-lived.

* A running theme in [[Raymond E. Feist]]'s work - strong monarchies are good; influence by commoners is bad; democratic republics are outright immoral and corrupt. Oh, and foreigners are a corrupting influence in the monarchy, exploit child slavery.

* In [[G. K. Chesterton]]'s ''The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond'', the danger of a Royalist pretender is that it might bring about the [[Rightful King Returns]] because of the problems with republics.

* Democracy is never even brought up in any ''[[Dune]]'' novel, as monarchy, coupled with a [[Feudal Future]], is seen as perfectly natural. It seems [[Frank Herbert]] is not a big fan of democracy.

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* Credomar habitat in ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' was "founded on the principles of Democracy" and when the eponymous mercenaries arrived (to distribute food) it was near anarchy with at least six different factions fighting for control. Then a robot dictator took over and now the trains run on time. Although Kevyn is quite convinced that Robot Dictatorship Is Also Bad.

'''Kevyn''': "Oh, good. Now, what about premeditated atrocities?" }}

** The League of Galactics (the one time it was mentioned) sounds more like a parody of the League of Nations, the United Nations of Sol is actually one of the major galactic powers (but is incredibly corrupt).