How can I take over the country?

Question

I live in a western democratic country and I'm rather discouraged. I don't feel the current political system works and have decided to take matters into my own hands.

My goals are:

To use the current economic/political system as a springboard to achieve complete autocratic rulership.
To avoid a violent uprising, to use the "slowly cook a frog" analogy I would prefer a series of small steps to an overnight coup.
I am happy to reward a small number of trusted lieutenants and am prepared to deal with them severely should they fail or betray me.

I had thought of using some kind of security breach (either physical or digital) to create a feeling of panic and prejudice among the general population. If I could engineer a solution to this problem then perhaps I could emerge as some kind of hero?

Please help me achieve my goal of absolute power!

Does my old question How can I transition from a democracy to a dictatorship, from within the government? answer yours, or are you looking for something not covered by that? — user, May 31 '18 at 15:57
A couple questions: 1. How large is this country? If it’s the size of Lichtenstein it might be able to be taken over faster than, say, Canada. 2. What is the economic system? Democracy is a political system, and besides, most western states are republics (there’s a difference, think Rome vs Greece). There can be communist democracies, or mercantilist democracies, or capitalist dictatorships. Finally, how many trusted officials are your upper limit? Small number = you can fit all of them in a small conference room? Or a bedroom? Or a mansion? — JSCoder says Reinstate Monica, May 31 '18 at 16:03
There was this German guy from Austria. His rise to power is very well documented and has been discussed in detail at every step along the way. I feel like a quick Google search might offer you some insight on how he managed to do that. It's also nice to know about him in general if you don't already to avoid several awkward situations that might occur at social gatherings. — Raditz_35, May 31 '18 at 16:05
just one thing, frogs do notice if you slowly cook them alive and will jump out — Amoeba, May 31 '18 at 16:13
@Raditz That country at the tie was in more of a deep crisis than any Western democratic system. In general, you get dictators when the democratic system is failing horribly and affects people's real lives day to day. — ohwilleke, May 31 '18 at 16:14
@ohwilleke So what is your point? Of course some of his methods were situational and not universally applicable, but in the literature about him you will easily find more things you can use than even a 200 page answer could give you. I think one should trust the OP enough that he manages to transfer some of the things he finds to a more contemporary setting, this has been done a million times already in fiction - it's not that hard — Raditz_35, May 31 '18 at 16:21
This sounds like a question about a story set in a world rather than about building the world. — sphennings, May 31 '18 at 16:32
Thanks @James I do try to pop in with questions every so often! — Liath, May 31 '18 at 20:28

Tyler S. Loeper · Answer 1 · 2018-05-31T19:16:48.920

You just need to undermine the rule of law slowly. One part is to slowly dismantle public institutions. For example by putting people in charge of them who hate the institutions themselves and want to see them fail and take action to do so.

At some point the regulatory agencies will be captured (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture). The rules won't matter anymore and you can just decide you are king now and won't leave office. It will no longer be illegal or punishable because you will have seized control of the only things that can stop you. This is especially effective if the people in the other positions of power are you friends, and have been appointed by you, or gain a lot of benefits from being in collusion with you

You many notice some parallels with real world countries.

How can I take over the country?

1 Answers1