protected democracy

English

Noun

protected democracy (plural protected democracies)

1. (euphemistic, politics) An antisocialist government that allows suffrage but places sovereignty in the army.

   Synonyms: authoritarian democracy, dictatorship of democracy, limited democracy

   • 1986, Michael Parenti, chapter 10, in Inventing Reality: The Politics of the Mass Media, New York: St. Martin’s Press, Inc., →ISBN, page 181:

     Pinochet, the Times reported, said he is “a lover of liberty, a right to which all men are born.” But he had no confidence “in orthodox democracy. It was too easy to infiltrate and destroy.” (He knew of what he spoke.) So he favored “a protected democracy” with a strong political role for the military. “He has managed to say in power,” the Times reported, “through what even his opponents recognize in political acumen…” (not terror, torture, and death squads.)