His actions this week show that he is Russia s new autocrat.

An enlightened autocrat can be just as protective of minority rights as a solidly democratic government.

But even the most determined autocrat cannot fully control political activity online. Tech savvy young people tend to circumvent attempts at official censorship.

To keep it from losing its way again, the AKP must also address the root cause of Erdoğan s metamorphosis into an intolerant autocrat.

For those who still wondered who Vladimir Putin is, the mystery is over. His actions this week show that he is Russia s new autocrat.

Once again, a pro American autocrat seems to be rapidly losing his grip on power, with his US ally only half heartedly standing by him.

This is not to suggest than an Islamist awakening in Pakistan is on the horizon, or that Pakistanis must choose between an unpopular autocrat or a Taliban style government.

Palestinian blogger Hisham Shafiq Skalla paid tribute to Ben Bella Ben Bella the revolutionary is not Ben Bella the autocrat and they are both different to Ben Bella the opposition figure.

Getting stuck in transition usually kills the momentum for democratic change, and widespread corruption, weak state institutions, and lack of security serve to reinforce a myth of the just autocrat. Vladimir Putin s rule in Russia illustrates this outcome.

Another casualty was the legitimacy of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. For two decades, Khamenei deceptively cultivated an image of an impartial and magnanimous guide, but his defiant public support for Ahmadinejad exposed him as a petty, partisan autocrat.

Obama s praise of Egypt s Hosni Mubarak as a man with whom one could do business demoralized Egyptian opposition groups, which have been struggling against the long serving autocrat and his efforts to ensure that his son, Gamal Mubarak, succeeds him.

Since then, while preserving a democratic façade, Hun Sen has ruled, for all practical purposes, as an autocrat, showing scant regard for rights of free expression and association and resorting to violent repression whenever he has deemed it necessary to preserve his and his party s position.

In the West, he is regarded as an authoritarian, an autocrat, even as a dictator while in Russia a huge majority regard him as the most democratic of leaders, on the grounds that he has done more than his predecessors to improve the lot of ordinary people.