Thread:4th of Augustball/@comment-38190122-20200311185625/@comment-34423308-20200501222702

indeed, it may seem that such is required in times of crisis. after all, it was thanks to China's hardline lockdown measures that COVID-19 has not ravaged Hubei as devestatingly as other regions such as Lombardy and New York (ofc there's also Trump's gross incompetence and all) - but simultaneously, there is still ongoing doubt over China's exact numbers. twice, China has covered up the scale of viral outbreaks. first with SARS in 2002, and now with COVID-19. although yes, China has been much more transparent with COVID-19, in the early stages, lower authorities oft silenced and denied any crisis, which leads me to point out the main flaw with big government:

when a state's beauracracy is so inflated and controlling with little transparency, as one sees in PR China, yes, higher officials still may retain some or all the virtues of serving the people, but lower authorities tend to try and scapegoat, cheat, and corrupt their way into office. purges and anti-corruption campaigns do little, either - they can easily be set up to seem so as a facade to cover politically motivated and targeted purges. again - if democracy is suspectible to the flaws of human nature via the people, then totalitarianism is suspectible to those flaws by its government.

Russia's failure to democracize is in part due to its rapid and unorganized attempt at transition - the USSR's collapse indeed felt almost instantaneous despite the causes of it lying silent for decades. suddenly, Russia was left with far fewer people and far fewer industries than it had before, and hardly had the time to prepare and reorganize to make use of such. not to mention the collapse sparked a wave of ethnic nationalism in the Caucases that led to conflicts that took up even more time and resources.