The New Elected Authoritarians – Chavez, Thaksin, Morales

Chavez Was Authoritarian, but Also Elected – cfr.org, March 6, 2013
[Thanks to Tom for pointing this out.]
…Like Chavez, a spate of other elected leaders—Thaksin Shinawatra in Thailand, Evo Morales in Bolivia and Ollanta Humara in Peru, to name a few— have shown little dedication to constitutionalism or the rule of law once firmly entrenched in office…
These are regimes where leaders gain power through democratic elections and then change the constitution and other laws to weaken checks and balances on the executive, thus ensuring the regime’s continuity and its almost total autonomy while still retaining a patina of democratic legitimacy…