In democracies, citizens can place bumper stickers on their cars boldly expressing pre-fabricated opinions. In a properly functioning authoritarian regime, such idiocy would be punishable by diligent application of a rusting Sears Die Hard car battery to the offender's genitalia, thus discouraging one's proudly idiotic individuality. In democracies, men wear durable suits, and women wear durable skirts and durable blazers with Reeboks. They're uniforms all right, but uniforms intended not to impress or excite the mind, as for example the overtly erotic, glorious Fascist uniforms of the 20s, but rather, to let their opposite numbers know that they're just as bland and harmless as the other person. Born In Sin.
All modern democracy descends from Athens.
In 510, an aristocrat named Cleisthenes, whose family, the Alcmaeonids, had rivaled the tyrant Hippias, wanted to take power after the latter died and thus return his rich family to Athens. Lacking a strong power base among the elite, he cynically decided to appeal to the mob by promising them representation in return for naming him their leader. Interestingly, the poor often supported tyrants against the aristocrats in ancient Greece precisely because they hoped that the tyrants would help them against the oppressive aristocrats. Slide your eyes over to Mart Rask. All of Eastern Europe's beer-bellied elite became enthralled by their neat, groomed little mustaches the minute the wall came down.