I don’t remember the details of the history, but if I’m not wrong Mao’s faction took power taking advantage of the chaos at the end of a long period of strife and civil war that originally was sparked by the overthrowing of the imperial government. I’d say having popular support isn’t the only way for a dictatorship to start, but it’s the main way to get there from a democracy. Other obvious ways are if a foreign power installs it somehow, or if, as in Mao’s case, it’s simply the result of the distillation process that takes place during a revolution, in which the most ruthless and fanatical bastards keep rising on top until they’re the only ones left, regardless of what was the original impetus behind the uprising. So I think for our current trajectory in western powers, popularity remains the main road to power.
I don’t remember the details of the history, but if I’m not wrong Mao’s faction took power taking advantage of the chaos at the end of a long period of strife and civil war that originally was sparked by the overthrowing of the imperial government. I’d say having popular support isn’t the only way for a dictatorship to start, but it’s the main way to get there from a democracy. Other obvious ways are if a foreign power installs it somehow, or if, as in Mao’s case, it’s simply the result of the distillation process that takes place during a revolution, in which the most ruthless and fanatical bastards keep rising on top until they’re the only ones left, regardless of what was the original impetus behind the uprising. So I think for our current trajectory in western powers, popularity remains the main road to power.