In many parts of the 21st century world, elections have become a way of trying to ‘fool most of the people, most of the time’. In all kinds of countries, even in the harshest dictatorships, different types of national, regional, and local elections are being held to give the impression that a democracy has been established, that the regime reflects the wishes of the people. But in so many cases, the result of this process to put into power elected pharaohs.
Elected pharaohs assume that because the people have been forced to show support for the regime, the leadership has been given unlimited powers. In the most extreme cases, in dictatorships such as Iran, the people are presented with a pre-screened group of candidates, and pressured to vote, like it or not. As I discuss in my book THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DICTATORSHIP http://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Dictatorship-Fathali-M-Moghaddam/dp/1433812983/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374465484&sr=1-1&keywords=the+psychology+of+dictatorship the regime counts on pressuring people to show public support for the elected pharaohs, so it becomes harder to express private disapproval (a process psychologists recognize as involving cognitive dissonance).
Elected pharaohs use the façade of democracy to keep themselves in power, on and on and on and on. Some of this is very apparent, such as in the case of Putin in Russia. What such leaders do is not unconstitutional, because they work with a constitution that allows leaders to keep ruling on and on and on and on. For example, Chavez in Venezuela created such a constitution, as did Putin in Russia. Khamenei in Iran rules on the basis of such a constitution; he is the supreme leader and he need not ever step aside from absolute rule, because the constitution allows him to rule forever.
Mohamed Morsi of Egypt is the latest elected pharaoh. He granted himself extraordinary powers, sidestepped all the courts, and pushed through a fatally flawed new constitution – which basically trampled on the rights of women and minorities. His attitude has been: I won majority vote, so I can do anything I like. Let us not forget that Adolf Hitler also won the popular vote in Germany, and decided he had the right to do anything he wanted.
But what makes the situation any different in Western societies today? Do we not have elected pharaohs in the USA and the UK? The Kennedy and the Bush families, are they not the equivalent of the pharaohs; SUPER-rich and beyond the reach of ordinary citizens? The Democratic and Republican candidates each spent over a billion dollars in the last presidential election – does that not seem to be in the league of the pharaohs? Prime Minister David Cameron and his cabinet in the UK have been criticized for representing the super-rich, and being only from exclusive schools, such as Eton. Are they not elected pharaohs? Of course, there is no pre-screening and strong censorship in the USA and the UK, as there is in dictatorships such as Iran and Russia, but when money plays such a huge role in elections, is the coming to power of elected pharaohs not inevitable? Perhaps Western democracy is saved by miracles, such as the election to the White House of an African-American individual from a middle class background?