Adam Gurri

They've done all right economically anyway.

They only last one generation, right?

They only last one lifetime.

What then comes next?

Often what comes next in actually halfway decent dictators is they establish the pathway to democracy because they know that even if you accept that they were a good dictator, which in most cases isn't,

And it's not as simple as that, right?

Because in order to stay in power, they had to do some ugly things.

But even if like on the scale of dictators, they were one of the less bad ones and actually like did some things that helped the country.

If they want their legacy to persist, they know that it's not about finding a successor.

It's about finding a pathway to democracy after them that's stable.

Yeah, it's complicated, right?

There are definitely liberal strains that are kind of hostile to democracy.

And to give the Hayek example again, he was kind of like,

bullish on Pinochet, right?

Because there was this idea that, well, you'd have a dictator who just imposed economic rights and stuff on the country, and then they'll be better off.

There's definitely liberals like that.

I would never defend them.

And they're wrong and bad.

On the other hand, though, in order to have an actual functional democracy, you do need some liberalism.

In order for an election to be free and fair, you have to have freedom of the press.