Democracy: While Supplies Last

Why checks and balances are the best defense against authoritarianism

All governments are faulty because people are faulty. Every system runs into the same problem: human beings. We are ambitious, greedy, short-sighted, and self-interested.

The best governments don’t pretend we can fix human nature. They admit the flaws and build guardrails. That’s what checks and balances are. They make sure no one person or branch holds too much power.

The self-correcting mechanism

The Roman Republic divided power among consuls, the Senate, and the people’s assemblies. Each could block the others. The United States copied that idea. The founders didn’t assume presidents would be virtuous or lawmakers wise. They assumed the opposite and created a system where ambition fights ambition.

England shows the same principle. Kings once ruled with absolute power. Over time, Parliament and the courts gained strength. By the late 1600s, the crown could rule only with Parliament’s consent. Today, the monarchy is symbolic because checks and balances drained it of raw power.

Checks and balances are messy. They slow things down. But that’s the point. They keep government self-correcting.

When the guardrails fail

History is clear about what happens when checks and balances collapse.

• Weimar Germany. Its constitution looked strong, but economic crisis and emergency powers left cracks. Hitler took advantage of those cracks. Parliament was dismantled, the courts made to answer only to Hitler, and power was consolidated in one man. What began as a democracy slid into dictatorship in a matter of years.

• Post-Soviet Russia. In the 1990s, Russia flirted with democratic reforms. But institutions stayed weak, and power became centralized in the presidency. Under Putin, checks and balances were hollowed out. Independent media was crushed, courts became rubber stamps, and regional autonomy was erased. The result is what Russia is today: an authoritarian state dressed up with the trappings of elections.

• Hungary. In the 2010s, Orbán used his majority to rewrite laws, weaken courts, and control the press. Hungary is still called a democracy, but the competition is hollow.

• Turkey. Once praised as a model of democracy in the Muslim world, Turkey under Erdoğan has seen courts sidelined, journalists jailed, and power centralized in the presidency.

• China. A different model. The Chinese Communist Party never allowed checks and balances in the first place. Its system shows the other extreme: efficiency without freedom, because there are no guardrails at all.

The bottom line

Governments are faulty because people are faulty. The only proven remedy is a system that admits those faults and keeps them in check. Rome, the U.S. Constitution, and England’s shift toward parliamentary rule prove it works. Weimar Germany, Russia, Hungary, Turkey, and China show what happens when it doesn’t.

If you want to know when democracy is in danger, don’t look at speeches. Look at the guardrails. When checks and balances are stripped away, authoritarianism is next.