The Authoritarian Alternative

Abstract

In 1976, 1000 million of the 1100 million people of South and South-east Asia lived under authoritarian rule. 1976 was in fact a lean year for democracy. A world survey showed that only 19·6 per cent of the world’s inhabitants then lived in free countries.¹ The retrieval of India from authoritarianism in March 1977 changed the picture. Today only about 460 million people live under dictatorial systems in this region of Asia. In terms of countries, however, ten out of fourteen presently remain lost to democracy. Of these ten, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam have fallen into the communist fold. In the case of Thailand military dictatorship has been the rule and democratic government the exception. In Bangladesh the dictatorship of General Rahman is now five years old. But unlike other authoritarians, the rulers of both Bangladesh and Thailand have not so far ventured into the problems of evolving any indigenous surrogates for democracy. General Rahman had promised to hold general elections in February 1977. But they were postponed on the grounds that party leaders had not yet sunk their past differences and, consequently, over fifty political parties had sought recognition. Instead, in May 1977 Rahman held a referendum. Over 98 per cent of the votes cast went in his favour.