What’s clear is who the winner is not: constitutional democracy. Erdogan, like his emulators and colleagues, has weakened the free press and free speech without completely shutting down all alternative political voices. If your plan is to erode constitutional democracy in favour of authoritarianism, why follow most of the rules most of the time? By maintaining at least the basic forms of constitutional democracy, the semi-authoritarian avoids alienating the opposition to the extent that it will try to overthrow him. Of course the new semi-authoritarians might fantasize about total power.

Source: National Post April 18, 2017 16:52 UTC