Which Countries Are One-Party States / Dictatorships?

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▶TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro
01:02 What is a one-party state?
02:14 Why do they exist?
03:12 Difference from authoritarian regimes
03:40 Empires & Puzzles Sponsorship
04:46 Which countries are one-party systems today?
05:48 Etymology of the word 'Dictator'
06:03 Limitations of the one-party state definition
06:45 FreedomHouse ranking of 'not free countries'
07:09 Map overview of freedom worldwide
08:09 Absolute monarchies today
08:59 Military dictatorships
09:38 Personal dictatorships
10:02 Common features of all dictatorships
10:49 Summary
▶ In this video I talk about one-party states throughout the world. First explaining what a one-party state / single-party system is and how they work; providing some historical examples of them such as the 20th century Portuguese dictatorship of the 'Estado Novo'. I then go into a brief overview of the countries today that are truly one-party states, according to its exact definition: China, Vietnam, Laos, North Korea, Eritrea. But then explain why this definition is severely limited: understanding that there are many 'de facto' one-party states - in which other parties are allowed to exist but severely limited and never capable of reaching power (such as in Russia, Belarus, etc.). Finally, I go into other regimes in the world where the scenario is the same as one-party states, but where parties don't even exist due to the ruling's faction absolute power, i.e. absolute monarchies and military dictatorships.
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[@General.Knowledge]

*Is your country a functioning democracy?* Download Empires & Puzzles here -> pixly.go2cloud.org/SH3gU

[@entertainmentyoutube3606]

you should give us the link of the maps, to see the information in detail

[@flameraker6824]

Yes but barely, we change PM almost every year

[@theconqueringram5295]

Eh, more or less.

[@zachwright7535]

Democracy - Yes Functioning - Hmm, barely. This is for Australia. Corruption doesn't appear to be rampant but if you watch live streams of parliament, it's like watching immature children arguing.

[@Go-pp4wd]

My country (Portugal) is a democracy, but not functioning :(

[@Makkez]

I like how a one-party state is considered a dictatorship and pure evil, but a two-party state is another matter entirely.

[@colonelcorn9500]

A dominant-party state is a democratic country with 1 large political party, a one-party state has only 1 legal political party. Both are usually authoritarian.

[@projectpitchfork860]

​@@colonelcorn9500 Yeah no. Cuba has one party and is one of the most democratic nations in the world.

[@colonelcorn9500]

@@projectpitchfork860 “One of the most democratic” No, it’s about as democratic as Singapore

[@ericktellez7632]

@@colonelcorn9500 it is literally more democratic than the US. Overwhelming support for gun control and free healthcare in the US yet both parties do not grant it, hell Trump was not elected by the people it was elected through electoral college yet the majority voted for Clinton, thats not democracy. In Cuba people voted in a referendum for the change of what constitutes a family, and the government changed it accordingly to the results immediately after.

[@colonelcorn9500]

@@ericktellez7632 Dude… you’re watching too much breadpill shit.

[@archstanton6102]

I lived in Brunei and drove with locals who were afraid of democracy as it would bring too many changes.

[@GwainSagaFanChannel]

They want their government to provide economic prosperity like in China and other ASEAN countries they do not particularly want democracy it is also a new concept to several countries who did not have prior experience with democracy

[@user-qh6nf2ev9s]

🤔 I can somewhat understand where the guy is coming from about democracy!! I’m from Burundi in east Africa where the country had been under a one party dictatorship rule with relatively peaceful coexistence (as long as you stayed out politics)for 40 years since the coup that removed the king just after independence in the 60s and as soon as democracy was introduced in 1993 and the first elected President being assassinated just 3 months later, we plunged into a 25years long civil war that ended with the establishment of a worse dictatorship that rule my country now under a one party state(ish) system where criticizing the government can get you a ticket to prison or cemetery.

[@Tethloach1]

The people decide what they want, if it happens then it is the peoples will.

[@bonk6164]

I also live in Brunei and it's true I'm also afraid of democracy because I fear that someone might abuse that power

[@jonatanborowicz]

@@bonk6164 Im sorry but that is messed up. Democracy is THE way to ensure that power is NOT abused. Don’t you realise your king is abusing power at this moment, because he can? Since nobody is allowed to question him he can do whatever he wants. THAT is abuse of power. Long live democracy! Where people have the constitutional right to speak up about difficulties and IMPEACH their leader if he/she doesn’t do his/her job properly or is abusing power. Im bothered to hear that you live in a country where this isn’t possible and where the education about this is prohibited.

[@SageArdor]

The Committee Of Union and Progress being the first one-party state via a coup feels weirdly poetic. Their acronym would be COUP.

[@General.Knowledge]

I didn't notice this! Very interesting

[@concept5631]

Interesting

[@lauralamantia5514]

Awesome 👌

[@AbrahamSalazar210]

Mexican here, One of the main reasons for why Mexico appeared as yellow instead of green on the "Freedom" map has to do with the fact that the Mexican federal government was essentially administered by the PRI political party from 1946 to 2000. Before 1946, previous iterations of the current PRI political party existed as PNR and PRM right after the Mexican revolution in 1917. Furthermore, power grabs from individuals and organizations throughout history such as the de-facto dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz did not help Mexico's ranking on the democracy scale.

[@SurgicalStrike41]

Strange as it may sound, playing as Mexico in Hearts of Iron IV after they got a unique focus tree taught me a lot about Mexican politics and got me interested in Mexico's internal affairs. As an American, we should really all know more about our very important southern neighbor

[@imperiumgrim4717]

​@@SurgicalStrike41yea bro Mexico gets crazy af sometimes tho

[@Ramzi1944]

Culpa de AMLO xd

[@user-xq9cx9ky9m]

So basically, Mexico had been an (almost) non-authoritarian, "rightful" one party regime for most of the last century.

[@imperiumgrim4717]

@ramzi3559 lol foo bring back monarchy so we can live in middle class neighborhood and better pay to as well

[@guitarstudiobackingtracks102]

I live in Vietnam and the government here is very democratic on a local level, civil groups elect a leader who work with others in the civil group to determine what to spend the budget on from what they have been allocated, the leader of the civil group will then also be a member of the ward's board who elect a representative to the district board, then the cities, the province, etc. The theory is that there is a direct line to the top and you know who to contact to pass on any concerns, on a local level it is very successful and has led to good budget allocation in education, road development and cleaning as everyone in the community has a say on how the budget is allocated. Higher level politics can be confusing and a bit of a black box but on a local level and even national level people are typically quite happy with how things work.

[@hereticalbug6361]

Lol they just want you to believe so

[@spookyengie735]

@@hereticalbug6361 I mean we live here, we can see the result with our own eyes. If you vote for a person under a promise, when they win and the promise it deliver then that a absolute win. you don't live here so you don't understand how competitive government are internally here. If a candidate can't deliver what promise during their promising speech (we don't have campaign here, it leave too much room for bribery and corruption), they get voted out and replace by others. This make it very important for politicians to be on the local good side if they want to remain in power.

[@hereticalbug6361]

@@spookyengie735 lol i am a vietnamese

[@guitarstudiobackingtracks102]

@@hereticalbug6361 fair enough, my apologies. What are your concerns with the local level politics here?

[@hereticalbug6361]

@@guitarstudiobackingtracks102 you can get arrested for speaking out against the government and you don’t allow to vote other party

[@MeikaiX]

One party doesn't always mean it's bad.

[@Jj-jg6pw]

So what's a two party system owned by a higher one party called?

[@hisham_hm]

2:56 in the US, after Ross Perot got around 20% as a third option candidate in the 90s, the two main parties passed several laws and regulations to make it more difficult for that to ever happen again. While "independent" candidates are legal in the US, several processes related to the electoral college pretty much assume the two parties only and make it nearly impossible to break out of their gridlock.

[@Robert_Douglass]

That's why it's called a Two-Party Tyranny. You think you're free to elect whomever you choose, but they have to be part of either the Democrat or Republican party. And they named the capital after our first president? George Washington would have been apoplectic over the way his warning was ignored almost as soon as he left office after serving his second term as President. I've never really trusted political parties to begin with, and I have even more reason to distrust them now. Party control of the media (MSNBC and CNN for Dems while the Reps took control of Fox News, OANN and Newsmax), the Electoral College, and Special Interest Groups and Political Action Committees hold their sway more than any private citizen ever did. And this business in Tennessee? Two Democrats were just expelled from their state House, and a third very nearly so (by just ONE VOTE), and until this afternoon I thought they were the only Democrats in the entire assembly. I still don't know what the real numbers are.

[@raymondhartmeijer9300]

Yes, because of that weird election system, the US is a de facto One-party state. It doesn't really matter which party is in power. They both agree on the main economic issues

[@PlaylistProleteriat]

@@raymondhartmeijer9300 they both agree on the main economic issues? Bs they barely agree on anything

[@raymondhartmeijer9300]

@@PlaylistProleteriat they both agree mainly on Neo-Liberal Capitalism, and sanctioning/invading countries that aren't friendly to their economic interests or outright oppose it. Those are by far the most important stances national and internationally. Except occasionally when someone like Bernie Sanders comes along, but he is then deemed an "unelectable candidate"

[@sulaimation6253]

@@PlaylistProleteriat The Republican Party is socially and economically conservative. The Democratic Party is economically conservative but socially is more liberal, though it is important to note that the Republicans become more liberal as time goes on and will give up their ideas if they become too unpopular and the Democratic Party becomes more socially liberal as the people do. In the early 2000s Democrat politicians like Joe Biden were publicly against gay marriage though now the same politicians are in full support of it. It is also important to note that even though both parties become more and more socially liberal, as more and more of the Democrat voter base is becoming socialist the party remains staunchly capitalist. Overall you could think of it like this: The Democrat Party becomes more socially liberal but remains economically conservative and the Republican Party essentially preaches what the Democrat Party preached 20 years ago. Both parties are basically the same.

[@Mr2Reviews]

Japan is basically a one party system as the ultranationlists, in this case known as the Liberal Democratic Party or LDP have held power since 1955 almost non-stop except for a couple years.

[@puraLusa]

That's cause culturally japan is ultranationalist. Still, for nationalists they did a lot of socialist laws.

[@user-nv4lc6yy7o]

shhhhh, don't tell the Americans that

[@VektekTV]

I've lived my entire life in Sweden, my family is swedish and so was their forefathers. But i do not feel like i contribute to how my life and the life around me is ruled. I get to vote every 4 years but other then that i have absolutely no say in what happens around me, the ones i vote for can just turn on their heels and do nothing for 4 years, which is what has been going on for decades now. Democracy shouldn't be "You get to vote every 4 years" it should be "You have an actual say in how your community is governed".

[@jonatanborowicz]

Jag håller inte med. I’ve also lived in Sweden all of my life. You can absolutely contribute to how your community is governed by joining your favorable party on the local level or starting your own movement if you disagree with them all. Kommunfullmäktige existerar vettu. I understand you probably mean a direct democracy like in Switzerland and that would be neat. But Sweden out of all democratic countries does have a very good system compared to others, i.e. USA with just two parties. Where more than two different ideas aren’t encouraged because that would ”split one of the parties”. At least in Sweden we understand that the world and life isn’t black and white.

[@fullmetaltheorist]

@@jonatanborowicz I think he wants to have a say in laws passed and decisions made. I would also like more power given to the people. It's not very good to have a small elite making all the decisions because it only takes one bad leader to ruin everything. Switzerland is doing much better than anyone in that regard.

[@hatinmyselfiscool2879]

Is someone interested in a little bit of socialism 😏

[@fullmetaltheorist]

@@hatinmyselfiscool2879 Nah. We're fine without socialism.

[@nelspas0191]

European moment

[@procoregaming6316]

It is worth mentioning that Freedom House is a US govt-funded organization so it's likely got some biases, but another informative video. I honestly don't think that there's any country around the world is a true democracy in that the govt effectively represents the interests of people, including in the West where special interests have heavy influence over govt policy.

[@dunnowy123]

Yeah this is super important to note. Freedom House is not a neutral observer by any stretch of the imagination, but, it still criticizes the US government from time to time. Which, buys it some legitimacy imo

[@valhalla-tupiniquim]

Best comment.

[@superhond1733]

Every hapiness index is from Scandinavea too.

[@familiescharf4207]

Kyrgystan for example is Democratic

[@mhdibm7515]

I am from sudan, and yes it is a fully fledged military dictatorship, the military controls pretty much every political aspect of the country and have deeper reach into the economy and other aspects of daily life

[@KingK2205]

I am from Ethiopia, I know about your crisis.

[@stevejohnson3357]

This could be the core of an entire political science course and there are lots of subtleties to be explored. You can have parties that are so dominant that they win all elections by wide margins over 20 or 40 years. then the leadership becomes divided or somebody steps over an invisible line and it's over. In some cases the ruling party seeks out independent members for the legislature because they give a positive impression of the regime.

[@General.Knowledge]

Very true!

[@StuTun]

Super interesting as usual. It would be great if you could do a full video on the Freedom House rankings on what criteria they used.

[@uncleho3085]

This is a great video to get a glimpse of how the West perceive the world. But the fact of the matter is that no country in history has ever made the transition from poverty to prosperity under a liberal democracy. On paper a multiparty democracy is ideal. But as plato pointed out democracy will inevitably turn into an oligarchy. Political parties need money to win elections. Once they win they will do the bidding of the people who brought them to power by funding their campaigns. The best example of the failure of democracy is the India - China comparison. Both countries were formed by 1950s. An average chinese citizen earn 5x what an avg. Indian earn. Freedom is a very vague term. Every citizen in Saudi Arabia has the right to free healthcare, education, food and shelter. But they dont get to vote every 4 or 5 years. In US people can't afford healthcare, education live in abject debt, millions live in tents on the street. But they get to vite every 4 years. Who is free?

[@mytiliss682]

More than that, their rule usually are much more popular than democracies. They need popular support to be stable. So you see said "authocracies" with popular leaders and "democracies" with globally hated ones.

[@puraLusa]

There is this one interview of a yugoslav kid in the 50's. Ur confusing financial/ monetary gains with freedom and ur doing it on purpose. Tipical commie deflection. Conclusion, golden cage is still a cage. Example of a democracy achieving all that: botswana. Case closed.

[@NeonBon]

I appreciate all the time you take to bring us regularly such interesting content. Thank you.

[@General.Knowledge]

Thank you for watching :)

[@PopeLando]

I'm here because I just watched the "countries that no longer exist" where you marked 20,000 subscribers. I saw that you're nearly at 750,000 so here's my best wishes for 750k and eventually a million and good luck!

[@benjaminprietop]

Some consider that Mexico in the 20th century was effectively a one-party state, since the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) ruled for 70 years straight, even though other parties did exist.

[@koiue.g8709]

It was, even at the local level

[@anhvuquang7906]

My father said systems of government don’t mean anything to someone who is hungry. It doesn’t matter if it’s the US, China or Russia. When the people starve, all the promises about “Freedom and Democracy” or “Communism Utopia” are just words and that’s how countries collapse

[@maikotter9945]

pyramide of needs = Bedürfnispyramide

[@haydn6174]

I would also consider Japan a one party state with LDP holding complete control over the country

[@AlreadyTakenTag]

As someone who has lived my entire life in a democratic country I often forget how many dictatorships and one-party states there still are in this day and age. And even many democratic countries can't be considered fully democratic.

[@some30yearoldvirginwhofant46]

Agreed. I take great issue with labelling any country with a presidential referendum as 'a democracy', democracy is a a spectrum not a binary: fptp vote for over 18s to elect a president every 4 years is the bare minimum, yet, as seen by the past few decades, ends up neither representative nor meritocratic.

[@AlyphRat]

Democracy does not exist.

[@theconqueringram5295]

This is a very interesting video about different dictatorships.

[@MarijnRoorda]

You should do a video on countries with "freedom and democracy" that have multiple party systems. It always strikes me as odd that in the US of A, you have essentially 2 parties, making you either against or in favor. Where as in my home country of the Netherlands, we have several hundreds (if not thousands!) of party's if you include lower levels of government such as municipality's, provinces and Watersheds.

[@Impoxium]

So, in the US, we actually do have a fairly large number of parties, one of the most known being the "green" party, however these are generally tailored to one specific issue, and don't Garner much public support. People are so heavily invested in being democrat or republican they aren't willing to risk voting for a different party essentially locking us in with two options. The day some famous person decides to advocate for another party, say a former president, chances are the political system might open up. As it is now, we're just stuck waiting with two awful parties and a bunch of scraps. Edit: The big thing keeping people scared is that even if they vote for a different party, nobody else will, meaning that all they think they're doing is taking away from the big party they'd rather win. Say you hate republicans, with all your heart, but you don't particularly like democrats either, and prefer a third party. If you vote the third party, you know you'll lose. But, if you vote for democrats, at least you can get a system you don't like, rather than downright hate. It's like safeguarding.

[@aaronTGP_3756]

Hence why voting reform must happen. STAR Voting, STV, Ranked Choice, Two Rounds, Score Voting, and even Approval Voting are better options.

[@lesp315]

Actually, the US has only one party. It's an American aristocrats party. The only difference between two fractions of the same party is how they steal from the working middle class and how they manipulate the rest of the world. Before we had British Empire doing the same thing only stealing more and killing more. Most likely next is going to be Chine and we all will be absolutely screwed. So far the US was the best option. That's all folks.

[@MarijnRoorda]

@@lesp315 I'm going to assume what you wrote was meant sarcastically and not at all serious.

[@lesp315]

@@MarijnRoorda I was as series as a heart attack.

[@FearlessP4P1]

You can include America in that. We ostensibly have 2 parties, but they NEVER address the issues of their respective voters or issues that have a majority consensus in polling, but these same politicians do work in their self-interests, while making it impossible for a 3rd party or independent candidate from actually taking power.

[@aaronTGP_3756]

That's a two party state. America is a democracy, but a bad one at that.

[@arthurwellesley1stdukeofwe890]

Slightly the fault of the American people aswell, you people are obsessed with either Democrat or Republican lol

[@IOSIVSOSOCOBA]

America is not a Country. America is a continent from Argentina To Canada. There are 35 countries in America (Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, México, United States, Canadá etc. ). Probably you want to say "United States" but this is only one country in America and is not the only country in this continent.

[@aaronTGP_3756]

@@IOSIVSOSOCOBA Well, here we call it America. And I disagree that two barely connected (by a mere 60 km) landmasses would make a continent. They also drift separately.

[@angelmendez-rivera351]

@@aaronTGP_3756 *Well, here we call it America.* You can call it whatever you want to, you would just be wrong lol. Sure, North America and South America are separate continents, but the entirety of the total landmass is called America.

[@dawkre1]

Hey, great video as always. I just wanted to mention that since 2021 Gwinea is also a military dicatorship.

[@popdartan7986]

Countries that the US considers free*

[@General.Knowledge]

True, the fact that the index is made by a 'Western' institution definitely creates some bias towards their idea of freedom

[@electro6202]

Which is kinda funny considering the us matched a lot of what he said when he was explaining what is a one party state but instead with the us its two instead of one

[@bdailshie]

I'd be interested in a video on the freedom ranking

[@gabrielson1956]

Can you share the source of the video? Because i never saw the soviet quote "the existence of multiple political parties would perpetuate class struggle"

[@thomasdixon4373]

Awesome topic, could u do a vid on dominant party nations?

[@General.Knowledge]

Sure! Like which ones?

[@thomasdixon4373]

@@General.Knowledge Botswana, Angola are the first that come to mind, my mind works alphabetically lol, they are dominant party democracies

[@rizkyadiyanto7922]

@@General.Knowledge japan, singapore

[@koiue.g8709]

​@@thomasdixon4373 México too last century

[@thomasdixon4373]

@@koiue.g8709 was it, I don't know that. I think some states of Mexico Still have dominant parties or is that incorrect?

[@kristiawanindriyanto5765]

Reminded me of Indonesia New Order regime, where Soeharto's Golkar Party will always won the election for over 32 years, altough technically there were three parties during election

[@ShadowMoon878]

Same with Singapore. It is always Lee Kuan Yew's People Action Party. They even did last minute gerrymandering before every elections and politically attacking strong opposition politicians through their state media

[@mariajoaoferrazdeabreu150]

Very interesting video. Congrats

[@General.Knowledge]

Thank you!

[@Long_Live_Asir]

Great videos as always GK. Greetings from Saudi Arabia.

[@General.Knowledge]

Thanks!

[@isahanianas4444]

greeting from india and uae (I live in uae and I am from india)

[@Tyrconnell]

I seem to recall tbat when they decided to introduce parliamentary elections to Bhutan they had a test run. They created three parties, 'Red', 'Blue' and 'Yellow' and listed policies for each. These were presented to the populace. The overwhelming response was, "which one does the king want us to vote for". Change takes time...

[@PedroToledo.]

Do you know where I can find those policies? I am interested.

[@Tyrconnell]

@@PedroToledo. I wrote that from memory. Looking it up I see there were actually 4 parties. The wikipedia article on the first Bhutanese election (2008) has the details in the 'background' section. It doesn't give the 'what does the king want?' response I recall, however the Yellow Party, representing 'traditional values' won, so that may imply that was the case.

[@PedroToledo.]

@@Tyrconnell Thanks

[@AmirSatt]

They should've said that king doesn't care lol

[@PedroToledo.]

@@AmirSatt Yes

[@flameraker6824]

Pleas do make a video about the free countires thing It would be incredibly interesting

[@benjaminlewis4667]

Freedom House Ranking would be very interesting to see a video on. Great video!

[@hollish196]

I would love to see a further examination of political control.

[@davidbryden7904]

A exploration of authoritarian multiparty democracies would interesting 🤔

[@General.Knowledge]

Yes! What examples would you give?

[@jonatanborowicz]

Hungary perhaps?

[@ultronhere4356]

India.. but you would have to country restrict it somehow...😅

[@davidbryden7904]

@@General.Knowledge actually, I was kinda thinking of about my home, the good old U.S. of A! Lol

[@aaronTGP_3756]

The U.S. is not an authoritarian state. That conclusion only comes from overgeneralization and exaggeration of our political problems. America is what we call a Flawed Democracy. Besides, a multi-party authoritarian state is either really unstable (Roman Republic) or a one party state with a puppet second party.

[@cjwms7279]

I want to see the Freedon House Rankings~!

[@General.Knowledge]

Ok!

[@runajain5773]

Their index is bias

[@montecorbit8280]

At 7:26 Freedom House Rankings.... Yes we want that video, when will it be out??

[@hans7856]

The União Nacional was not a political party though, more the opposite of that. It was not a source of power and not very active over all. Political parties as we know them were forbidden in Portugal, and the União Nacional was a sort of platform.

[@joeshmoe8345]

Very good

[@vincent412l7]

George Washington opposed political parties. He wished people would act on their own accord.

[@echardtschloeder5178]

I'm not convinced that democracy in a two party preferred system is true democracy, or worth while.

[@henryhawthorn8849]

Although Japan is a democracy with free elections where several political parties compete for votes, the reality is that the Democratic Liberal Party is almost always elected to the Diet (parliament) ever since the end of World War II, making it a de facto one-party state. Also, in Mexico until a few years ago, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional were the only political party elected at the national level. And in the United States there are “red states” that always elect a majority of Republicans as governors or members of the legislatures - in fact they’re one-party states. To a lesser extend there are some “blue states” that almost exclusively elect Democrats at the state level, although Republicans in these states do get elected some times, and more often than Democrats in red states.

[@Amitdas-gk2it]

Please make a video on Military dictatorship countries

[@freddytang2128]

I’m not the cynic that complain “all politicians are the same!” But here in Canada/Ontario, sometimes it does feel like that. The major parties seem to bicker over a specific tax here and there, but mostly agree on the big issues. So I feel like some democracies are becoming one party states if major parties are almost the same

[@Nandosisraeliambassador]

Hi,ur a really good KZbinr

[@General.Knowledge]

Thanks :)

[@Nandosisraeliambassador]

@@General.Knowledge didn’t expect a respond thx

[@drscopeify]

Democracy allows for the sharing of power in a fair way, change of national direction, new ideas to occur as well as representing the people better by changing leaders according to the wishes of the public. If people in Russia did not want a war they are unable to choose a new leader who will prevent a war.

[@GwainSagaFanChannel]

Its not like they can vote for a new leader if the opposition leadership is behind bars and the current party in power is not really likely to surrender their leadership

[@jonatanborowicz]

@@GwainSagaFanChannel They would if they could and knew the broader picture. What makes me worried about Russia is how effective their propaganda seems to be.

[@revenger211]

Things are always alot complicated than it seems to be

[@thelad9434]

@@jonatanborowiczThats because a lot of it is not propaganda.

[@xp_studios7804]

In addition to dominant party states, like Russia, where the ruling party ensures that the opposition will never win, there are also de facto one party states which are multi party legally, but the ruling party essentially bans opposition as with true one party states. There are probably less obscure examples, but one that comes to mind is Tajikistan. In theory any party can legally win, but only the ruling party will ever come close to victory and the only other parties in the legislature are essentially its satellites.

[@CursedAnqxl]

a two party state is also likely to be a one party state in all but name

[@General.Knowledge]

How so? As completely flawed and awful as the US political system I wouldn't consider it a one party state?

[@alex_liaskos_]

​@@General.KnowledgeIt's about who rules, not who acts in the parliament as the ruler. With your video, you helped spread ignorance and misinformation to the public. Liberal democracy and multi-party systems have nothing to do with DIRECT PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY

[@hatinmyselfiscool2879]

@@General.Knowledge because both parties build on each other. The democrats either calm the population into a sense of security for the republican party too come in and kick down the door AGAIN or actively support the measures that republicans have implemented, instead of being an opposition force like they are supposed to be (best example bush, who actively implemented reagen era economics)

[@user-bs5qr5ie4s]

@@alex_liaskos_ the big cooperations and banks are the ones who rule these democratic nations behind close The elected politicians are just actors

[@KartoffelHundin]

Japan is in many ways a one party state. The opposition is too weak and divided to represent a real threat to rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (who are neither liberal nor democratic).

[@General.Knowledge]

I always find it weird when I see Japanese polls and the rulling party has such a gigantic advantage when compared to others. Why is this?

[@hatinmyselfiscool2879]

@@General.Knowledge because they actively take measures too silence opposition, they have a voter base of xenophobic old people that pull down on the nation at large and they have lots of control over media either through the governments hand or through private association.

[@foundationgamer9771]

8:39 I would say it's wrong to say Jordan isn't Democratic: It has many parties, and their voting base is rather spread out, so there isn't one dominant party either. In fact, the largest party, the Islamic Action Front, is a branch of the Islamic Brotherhood, which is a group dedicated to the establishment of nations with Free Elections, Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Assembly in the Middle East.

[@sarunisolitei248]

Do a vid on most similar language pairs (not dialects; like Spanish and Portuguese)

[@puraLusa]

There is no such thing as spanish, it's castilian. That is already done, it's called the language tree.

[@SSADO-]

@@puraLusa Oh please nobody cares. They will always call it Spanish

[@electricVGC]

Japan and Singapore are de facto one party states but Freedom House agrees with them politically so they get to be green :)

[@puraLusa]

No, those parties are there cause the societies that they rule have conservative culture. Japan is a great example cause japanese culture is nationalistic, there are even people who still worship the emperor, hence the majority vote for nationalist party. Also, demographics, japan is basicly ageing pop and old folks tend to not like change. Singapoor is also like that, they vote authoritarian cause the different identity groups common value is a strong authoritarian state, that came from the times they all were afraid about a commie coup and becoming china puppet city-state.

[@electricVGC]

@@puraLusa Congratulations on explaining why they are de facto one party states rather than constructive one party states.

[@puraLusa]

@@electricVGC but that makes them higher in the freedom list, as it is a public choice rather than out of freedom list as in imposed. No one imposed that party, it was chosen thru elections. That is the title of the video isn't it? Ur problem is that u want a diferent world by force, where all societies are exactly the same, with same culture and diversity. The reality is some countries aren't diverse, hence 1 party generally takes the votes. Also, both japan and singapoor have dome awsom job, hence the vote, majority aproves their work. What bugs u is that they haven't failed meanwhile they are righty and not commie.

[@valdsonfrancisco8836]

I never understood why contrasting one-party states with democracy, you could theorectically have a one-party state paired with some form of direct democracy that would render parties basically meaningless (imagine a gov. where the bureucrats can make plans and execute those plans but always need to make plebiscites for people to decide if those plans are to be executed). At the same time multi-party states are not inherently more free. Research¹² shows that, in America, the desires of rich people (being a minority) are taken in consideration more than the desires of the common people (the majority), how is that a democracy? ¹ - Brian F. Schaffner, Jesse H. Rhodes, Raymond J. La Raja, The Conservative Bias in America’s Local Governments, Political Science Quarterly, Volume 137, Issue 1, Spring 2022, Pages 125-154 ² - Michael J. Barber, Representing the Preferences of Donors, Partisans, and Voters in the US Senate, Public Opinion Quarterly, Volume 80, Issue S1, 2016, Pages 225-249

[@GeoEritrea]

Imagine being a democracy *This comment was written by the Electoral College Gang*

[@GwainSagaFanChannel]

Laughs in dutch indirect democracy without an electoral system

[@General.Knowledge]

Lol

[@user-lz5dz1qx2q]

To see my country ( Sudan ) in the thumbnail is quite funny because I don't think there's a country with more political parties than Sudan We literally have more than 100 political parties to give you an idea. These are some political ideologies these parties are built upon 1. Panafricanism 2.Panarabism 3.Radical Islamism 4.Modern islamism 5.New-mahdism 6.liberalism 7.socialism 8.communism 9. Separatism ( in every region there are different Separatistic parties) 10. Pro union with Eygpt.

[@hatinmyselfiscool2879]

Yeah, don't think the military is gonna let you have internet for much longer.

[@Cremenium]

If you consider Russia as a “one party state” because they elected the same party for two decades, you should consider Japan as a one-party dictatorship as well. They have done it for more than 60 years, and opposing parties don’t even have a chance.

[@puraLusa]

Nope, cause japan isn't imprisoning oosition nor approving laws that block civil liberties and the author did explain the list took in consideration civil liberties. Japan has them.

[@NickZhukov]

​@@puraLusa any ideas about imrisoned oppositioner, who were imprisoned not for criminal deals? 😂

[@puraLusa]

@@NickZhukov that's a troll question. Helps no one but weak ego's.

[@aborch7]

Great vid, @General.Knowledge 💜

[@General.Knowledge]

Thanks!

[@user-sx8jp5ee5m]

Also, Egypt 🇪🇬 is a military dictatorship during 70 years. There were 4 presidents, all of them from the army, especially after the coup against King Farouk in 1952.

[@puraLusa]

Yes, egipt is on the list where an army has a country as oposed a country with an army.

[@hisham_hm]

honestly, two-party countries should be marked as partly free in that map too... how much freedom do you have if you only have two choices? (who agree on lots of super important stuff such as "we need to give the largest chunk of our budget on the military")

[@mybodyisamachine]

America isn't officially a two party state. You can vote for third parties if you want, they aren't banned or anything, but the system kinda naturally leads to two parties forming. There have been exceptions like Ross Perot.

[@hisham_hm]

@@mybodyisamachine yes, I'm aware - after Ross Perot got around 20% as a third option candidate in the 90s, the two main parties passed several laws and regulations to make it more difficult for that to ever happen again. While "independent" candidates are legal in the US, several processes related to the electoral college pretty much assume the two parties only and make it nearly impossible to break out of their gridlock.

[@dinte215]

@@mybodyisamachine i mean we say Hungary is a dictatorship, despite having more parties than the USA across all legislative bodies (running and eventually elected). Shouldn't that make the US less free and democratic as well. And don't forget the classic 'It was campaign rhetoric not what i actually intended to do' every election, every bloody election.

[@imanonimous167]

While most people wouldn't consider it a dictatorship, leichstenstien is also an absolute monarchy which was left of

[@alarabi98]

For Kuwait, I’m not sure how we aren’t at least partly free. Yes, the royal family has some power, but it’s comparable to the King of the UK but with a few more powers. Our parliament is pretty much freely elected with MPs from all walks of life in the citizenry.

[@puraLusa]

I always had the prespective of kwait being mostly free. The few media stuff I saw from kwait seem like peeps were with freedom of expresion with variety of points of view.

[@omerbar7518]

But thank god the US has TWO parties, so it's obviously not a dictatorship (although they're practically the exact same lol)

[@rheiagreenland4714]

Yeah lmao western "democracy" is such a thinly veiled lie

[@edwardsnowden8821]

why the heck is tibet shown as separate from the PRC

[@Americanbadashh]

Japan is a de facto One-Party State, and a lot of people miss that fact. They have smaller parties but they're all so weak that even if they banded together they couldn't topple the largest party and they never would due to their ideological differences anyways. Granted Japan's one party is large it's begun to have different ideological factions but the same can be said of the CCP, at the end of the day they still refuse to split their parties over it.

[@puraLusa]

The diference between ur 2 example is 1 has been voted for and translates the very nationalistic japan culture is, the other came to power by force (civil war and all), and is basicly an interpretation of a book from a german author who never actually rulled (no experience just lots of bull shit theory) imposed on chinese while not allowing dissent. Not the same thing at all.

[@ayalKavithaEzhuthukayanu]

There are at least 2 things wrong with the Freedom map shown in this video 1. India is shown in yellow as partly free whereas India is the world's largest democracy. 2. The northernmost union territories of J&K and Ladakh have been shown as part of China instead of India. Although minor parts of these territories are occupied by Pakistan and China and are under dispute, the majority of these territories officially are part of India

[@puraLusa]

He explained that this list includes civil liberties along with political freedom. In indias case is cause india is still fighting for individual civil liberties.

[@Sin1s_ter]

How is UAE and Malaysia different colours when they both have the same government type?

[@lzbscalle7943]

what if you have many parties that differ in ideology but do the same changes in practice. what is it called then?

[@comradetorres3064]

A one party state pretending it’s not

[@G.A.C_Preserve]

1984

[@jonatanborowicz]

Men lägg av, jag hoppas verkligen inte du pratar om Sverige. Rent skitnack isåfall.

[@alm9322]

Germany

[@hatinmyselfiscool2879]

America.

[@alomaralsulaiman6501]

In the case of Syria, it's somehow all of them, it's one party state (ba'ath party as the Ruling party) and military dictatorship (from the fact that Assad the father came to power with military coup d'etat) and dynastic absolute monarchy (the Assad family as the Ruling family).

[@MontChevalier]

In comparison to two party states? Yeah. So much better. You get to have the illusion of choice. When you really have none.

[@General.Knowledge]

I don't think they're the same, but I also dislike two party states very much

[@shonenjumpmagneto]

Why is West Sahara 🇪🇭 highlighted in the thumb?

[@comtedeswag]

I think it would be neat to mention Cuba’s government, which has one party, but for the government you have to be a independent. The Cuban government is really neat and I’d like to see you talk about it!

[@puraLusa]

It's all a bunch of lies. Cuba is full on a dictatorship where a selected few have it all and everyone else is basicly a slave. Going hungry is the norm not the exeption.

[@peterw9006]

The most interesting fact about King Charles the First is that he was 5 foot 6 inches tall at the start of his reign, but only 4 foot 8 inches tall at the end of it. Because of ... 9:30 kzbin.info/www/bejne/mnOzl2mGaJhlq68

[@you_dare_to_gaze_upon_me]

hmm so what do u do if u spawn in a dictatorship?

[@hannahtanski3911]

what if the two parties in a two party state are effectively the same?

[@andcho13]

Intresting that Tibet were included in the map.

[@flawyerlawyertv7454]

Interesante. 👍

[@surajitmondal823]

Can you explain why did you put rest of India in yellow and kashmir in purple?

[@_first_swipe_4]

Why US is green instead of yellow while it's system creates barriers and makes impossible to new party to come in power and you can choose only one of the main two parties that doesn't seem too democratic

[@notachinesespypleasebeliev8954]

Because there are dozens of smaller parties that you can vote for. And most countries are the same with 2 parties with 2 dominant parties filled with a bunch of smaller, weaker parties

[@ChrisFan890]

I love Geography

[@Lanetgm]

I saw you before werid

[@no6odys8fe90]

Me too and maps for some reason no cap

[@amberlandball]

I like geography and space

[@Bjix]

What am I supposed to do with this information? 🤨

[@amberlandball]

@@Bjix idk

[@swastiksadhu2795]

Two party system cannot be considered democracy..... It's worse than one party system

[@alomaralsulaiman6501]

- are you one party state, a military dictatorship or a absolute monarchy? Syria: *YES*

[@puraLusa]

😂 So precise. U can also do a how many parties syria has in its civil/proxy war. Syria: yes 😂

[@josueveguilla9069]

You forgot about Equatorial Guinea 🇬🇶

[@Dhi_Bee]

Yeah, a “president for life” & now his son is the lifelong president

[@General.Knowledge]

Are they a dictatorship too?

[@josueveguilla9069]

@@General.Knowledge Yes, they are a dictatorship.

[@josueveguilla9069]

@@Dhi_Bee Exactly. Thank you.

[@stonebeetle006]

I think to those lists Cambodia and Equatorial Guinea should be added. Both are considered de-facto one-party states. I think their status as "dominant-party" governments is incorrect

[@sebbvell3426]

Here in Venezuela, we have a one-party system like Belarus.

[@puraLusa]

Both commies.

[@juamu1132]

singapore is a de facto one party state and japan as well

[@polylangh2635]

So, what is freedom?

[@3rd.Eye.Saw.Destruction]

“They haven’t evolved into being democracies” Darwinian racism calling eastern people backwards

[@heysiri8748]

Good video but I'm not sure about your "evolution" concept of democracy as the final form of a state. This isn't an attack on democracy as a government system for all nations, but I'd argue the Singaporean government as a de-facto one-party state is more developed than modern Mexico that has a multi-party system for governance.

[@susimposter9412]

Disappointed U didn’t mention 1984 (INGSOC)

[@philliplarson2155]

More than likely a one party state is an authoritarian state. The authoritarian two or more party states controlling party always seem to get a majority of the votes thereby making it a one party state.

[@isxksjstskakfxhapwu]

India shown under partly free ? We've never faced any military coup or Dictatorship in 75 years of independence. Central govt has changed like 6-7 times in last 35 years. There are about 15 different ruling parties across different states at this moment. It doesn't make sense

[@hatinmyselfiscool2879]

You don't have to have a military dictatorship too not be free. Also, an "elected government" that is elected by only part of thr country and that actively passes anti democratic measures is not free.

[@martychisnall]

There are 21 full democracies and 53 flawed democracies in the world, that’s 74 in total out of 196 countries, so that’s less than half, a lot less.

[@sebastianaraneda8147]

It's almost like if representative democracy was a recent, western development that the rest of the world is not obliged in any way to follow

[@boriskrum1650]

There are other parties in China and even in North Korea. But these countries are de facto one-party states and dictatorships. These multi-party systems are based on the communist idea of ​​people's democracies. The Communist Party leads an alliance (National or Patriotic Front) with small subordinate parties representing allied social groups and progressive movements.

[@valhalla-tupiniquim]

USA has two very similar parties. So, in my conception isn't a democracy. Demo in Greek means people. So, there could be more than one or two because there are many points of view in just a single party. It's what I expect. Of course, many people don't expect my point of view.

[@puraLusa]

The preception they are similar is cause centrist from each side usually are more popular (save exceptions like bernie), while the more party right/left aren't. The differences are there, and they are very different.

[@angelmendez-rivera351]

@@puraLusa The only real differences are in the social conservatism versus social moderates. In all other aspects, the parties are economically and politically the same.

[@Nikwunu]

a dictatorship is a rule of one, that "one" might be an individual, organisation or group. you say that the vatican isn't a dictatorship but you can identify the one group calling the shots. a democracy has universal sufferage.

[@freddiemercury2075]

Hey @General Knowledge, can you explain Singapore ? Are they one-Party or free country ? (Ironic I know since Singapore is one of the most expensive country to live in in the world)

[@c4knowledge562]

Was india from 1947 to 1975 one party system country where congress government was constantly

[@AggressiveSkunk]

why is the red star in the North Korean flag censored?

[@sebastianaraneda8147]

I'll guess either a mistake or a nonsensical reason related to red stars and censorship

[@TheBobVova]

It's how democracy and freedom in YT and the West work.

[@AggressiveSkunk]

@@TheBobVova but its in so many games that belong to those in the western world and they cant even have North Korea because the citizens are landlocked without any ability to use the internet so they are not representing them in anyway I just think its too much like we still have the Cuban flag and Vietnamese

[@AggressiveSkunk]

@@TheBobVova sorry for the essay but also I was thinking It might be because Portugal does not recognize North Korea and well because he's Portuguese maybe its Illegal or he just wants to be respectful (he's very nationalistic which is not bad but lol)

[@TheBobVova]

@@AggressiveSkunk Just realize he's from Portugal.