Democracy to Despotism

Many believe that democracy is ideal in creating a government of checks and balances and avoiding power being concentrated in the hands of one or even a few entities. This, however, is untrue. When Plato said "Democracy passes into despotism," he was right, to the point that democracy does not ensure despotism. Democracy ensures that equality will come through holding free elections; not that power will be divided amongst government institutions in order to avoid despotism, it is the liberalism present in a democracy that ensures that too much power will not end up in the hands of one entity. When illiberalism is present in a democracy, despotism is very likely to/often occurs. As Fareed Zakaria points out in his book The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad, there are two kinds of democracies: liberal and illiberal. Both are forms of government that are considered a democracy, but only a liberal democracy (such as the U.S.) in which power is divided amongst government institutions, creating a system of checks and balances, ensures that despotism will not occur. In fact, there are many examples around the world of countries that are "democratic" but still despotic. Venezuela and Kazakhstan are perfect examples of illiberal democracies that have led to despotism. Hugo Chavez and Nursultan Nazarbayev were both elected democratically, but their countries do not divide power amongst the government and both of these leaders have enormous amounts of control in their respective countries. As Zakaria says, they are illiberal democracies in which leaders are elected through free election, but the lack of liberalism in the government allows for despotism, or the dominance of one party in politics. Plato's argument that democracy leads to despotism is true in the fact that it isn't democracy that makes governments such as the United States have power split up amongst many branches of government, it is the liberalism that exists in that democracy. So, governments that are considered democratic can and often do lead to despotism due to the illiberalism and centralization of power in the high offices of these governments.