Democracy vs Autocracy

A group makes countless decisions over its lifetime.
Each decision falls on a spectrum from democratic to autocratic.

Some decisions are supremely autocratic, and others are purely democratic.
Between these two extremes, there is a spectrum of consensus.

As much as a dictator can be popular, a democracy can be tyrannical.

Democracy is not inherently good as autocracy is not inherently bad.
The success of each style depends on their execution within a context.

The Context

Autocracy

Autocracy has the advantage of efficiency.
A capable dictator with the right goals can achieve them quickly.
A plan of action from a single mind has consistency.
Consistent, planned actions are more likely to succeed.

But autocracy also has the disadvantage of efficiency.
An incompetent dictator lacks the input needed to choose the right goals, and they lack the feedback needed to correct themselves.
So an incompetent dictator achieves the wrong goals quicker than they should and takes longer to see their mistakes.

Democracy

Democracy has the advantage of information.
A healthy democracy gets input from every member of the group.
People are encouraged to voice their perspective.
Leaders who fail to resonate are ignored.

But democracy also has the disadvantage of information.
Network complexity scales exponentially.
Noise drowns the truth.
Too many perspectives create a paradox of choice.

The Paradox

Ironically, the success of a democracy depends on its leaders' ability to influence the majority.
Without leaders, a democracy is chaos.
A democracy without strong leaders is confused and uninspired.

And ironically, the success of an autocracy depends on its populace’s ability to influence their leader.
Without a populace, an autocracy is nothing.
An autocracy without a strong populace is clueless and unengaged.

The Balance

Democracy creates input, feedback, energy.
Autocracy creates output, feed-forward, solidity.

To start, democracy collects voices and engages the group.
Once heard, autocracy commits to an achievable plan for the group.
Given that plan, distributing decisions maximizes the power of the group.
To close, autocracy organizes new information and imagines the next chapter.

With democracy on one side and autocracy on the other,
we should balance the scales gracefully across contexts.