No. of Recommendations: 4
But he uses every lever he can to control the outcome- and succeeds in doing so.
Almost every autocrat in the world allows elections, but controls the outcome by employing every force in his or her power to keep people he doesn't like away from the polls, or to disallow their votes if they manage to cast a ballot.
Yes, and almost every country in the world has their national government run their elections. Which means whoever is in charge of the national government has all the levers.
Our country is different, because we don't give the national government any of the levers. The levers are all manned by different people. We also have an independent judiciary (which no autocrats do), so the people that adjudicate disputes over the levers are also not under the control of the person in charge of the national government.
Checks and balances, natch. The Founders were pretty smart. Things like the Electoral College and the inefficiencies of a patchwork national system are pretty annoying at times, but they do have their perks...
