How is that an oxymoron? An authoritarian government isn’t excluded from doing good things. Most authoritarian governments have done some good, it’s just not an excuse for the authoritarianism or whatever else those respective governments are up to.
And take a closer look at California high speed rail. Public consultations have factored into how things are/were planned. It’s far from ideal, and especially in the US there are plenty of problems (take a look at Europe for better examples, even though they’re far from perfect). And at least in the US, there are elections that, as very imperfect as they are, the citizens still (emphasis on still) have a certain say as to how things are running.
I mean, yeah, working in the transit branch, I would love to ram things through the way they do in China - it would make my job way easier and I’ve had colleagues fantasize about it, but in the whole of things, I am glad that the people still hold a certain amount of power here. Unchecked power is never a good thing.
How is that an oxymoron? An authoritarian government isn’t excluded from doing good things. Most authoritarian governments have done some good, it’s just not an excuse for the authoritarianism or whatever else those respective governments are up to.
And take a closer look at California high speed rail. Public consultations have factored into how things are/were planned. It’s far from ideal, and especially in the US there are plenty of problems (take a look at Europe for better examples, even though they’re far from perfect). And at least in the US, there are elections that, as very imperfect as they are, the citizens still (emphasis on still) have a certain say as to how things are running.
I mean, yeah, working in the transit branch, I would love to ram things through the way they do in China - it would make my job way easier and I’ve had colleagues fantasize about it, but in the whole of things, I am glad that the people still hold a certain amount of power here. Unchecked power is never a good thing.