After looking through the list of governments, I believe that the least dystopian, although all have the capacity to become one, is democracy. Democracies lack centralized power, which significantly decreases the chances of a totalitarian uprising. For democracies, there are two main denominations: direct and representative. Direct democracies allow voters to make decisions on topics without the middle man – or the representative, like in a representative democracy. Democracies are one of the best systems of power in regard to freedom as well as legislation. Freedom dictated within laws calls for cultural and religious freedom as well as separation between church and state, which nondemocratic forms of government (like monarchies and theocracies) still suffer with. Unlike other forms of government, such as parliamentary, democracies give importance to the citizens by allowing them to cast votes for themselves. This is both a feeling of freedom for the voter and of responsibility – as if the voter helped nurture the country they live in by participating in elections. This gives citizens a lack of alienation and unites them under one cause. Democracies also liberally exercise justice. If the elected government was inherently evil, people could peacefully vote that leadership off without a full-scale civil war or complete governmental change.
More than just democracy, the type of democracy practiced is important. Electrocracy, for example, is a type of democracy that is a lot more dystopian, due to its citizens being under the guise that they are helping their country by voting. However, the government still reigns supreme with almost all of the power, making a governmental change near impossible without violence. There is also a social democracy, which preaches the same (if not, more) equality depending on discriminatory factors like gender, race, sex, sexuality, and religion. The interesting thing about social democracy is how it tackles social issues via its economic model. It’s still capitalist and utilizes a free market but slowly adopts a socialist model.
However, everything has the capacity to become dystopian and even democracy has its own flaws. The system is too trustful of its elected politicians and is then easily manipulated. Monopolies and lobbying skew the marketplace and lawmaking, which are then exacerbated by politicians choosing to work for corporate and monetary interests over helping their own citizens.
