An authoritarian government elected democratically is still authoritarian.

An authoritarian government elected democratically is still democratic. The whole point of democracy is that the people choose the government they want for themselves.

North Koreans wept when the previous dictator died. Is NK not authoritarian?

And from the closer neighborhood: Russia and Belarus

It's called Democratic Republic Of North Korea so of course not, it's in the name

/s

How? By enacting the will of an authoritarian majority, of course.

Calling it authoritarian is an opinion, which can be debated. The parent comment said the government was not democratic, which is false.

It's not "most Poles". It's realistically a quarter, maybe a third of the population. Thankfully, the turnout increased from 51% in 2015 (when they won the absolute majority for the first time with 38%) to 68% in the second presidential election vote in 2020 (when they also won, but with a pretty slim margin).

>Most Poles currently prefer this government to a neoliberal cesspool.

Not really. They just don't hate it enough to unite against it.

Let's say that there are parties X, Y and Z.

30% of the population votes for X, 30% for Y and 40% for Z.

Now, even if followers of X and Y hate Z more than each other, the winner is still Z.

> 30% of the population votes for X, 30% for Y and 40% for Z.

> Now, even if followers of X and Y hate Z more than each other, the winner is still Z.

In this situation, Z would not win a runoff election though. In 2020 The PiS candidate won the presidential election[1]. I think saying that most Poles prefer the current government is imprecise but still truthful, therefore.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Polish_presidential_elect...

Not in a parliamentary system like they have in the Netherlands.

Poland also has proportional representation. A 40% party will need to coalition with other parties if it wants to have enough votes to rule.

Except votes for parties who get less than 5% (if running alone) or 8% of votes (if a Coalition) do not count. So that 40% becomes 52% and suddenly the only thing you can do as a minority party is yell.

Rules like that aren't uncommon.

Netherlands is like the one exception that doesn't require parties to win >4-5% of the vote to get into parliament.

And all of these systems are more democratic than what the USA uses.

You'll never know what most citizens prefer if you prevent or encumber opposition candidates.

False dichotomy?