Industrialization: Authoritarianism or Semi – Democracy?

I believe that O’Donnell’s findings, within the reading, are interesting to interpret. For example his idea about industrialization and the development of the populist and gaining support through the creation of initial phase of industrialization, which he classifies as consumer goods, is the steps in creating an authoritarianism government is something that is interesting but I would argue. The focus this week is the transition into an authoritarianism government and the study is to show how that occurs, but the creation of consumer goods and industrialization would create a much larger middle class, which the author discusses stating that in order to be prosperous with consumer goods then obviously there must be consumers. Therefore with the creation of a middle class or the populists there would be a larger group of individuals that would not subject themselves to an authoritarianism institution that would not allow for their growth or opportunity to flourish be stunted by authoritarianism. The author states that they began with an oligarchic system, which would then begin to be challenged with this new rise of the populists. This is because they would begin to understand that they are going to become more involved into the political process that has been restricted by the oligarchic way. With this challenge, the political elites would begin to become worried of their footing or control being lost within their states and therefore want to intervene using the military as the author states, but what good would this do? Innovation and prosperity can be correlated with the development of a populist’s class and their participation in the development and management of large corporations that could be state or privately owned by the oligarchic structure. The military involvement or coups does not benefit the oligarchs or political elites or the populist people. This can be seen in Venezuela in recent news that the military is getting very rich by trafficking food, and becoming the sole authority over food. If the military wanted they could hold the political elites hostage with not allowing them access to the food. Therefore, not turning towards an authoritarianism institution, but rather a semi – democracy would benefit the political elites and oligarchs and would please the rising populists. I believe the idea of advanced industrialization is a step to a semi democracy rather than an authoritarianism institution, wouldn’t you agree?http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/01/09/508986586/as-venezuelan-go-hungry-the-military-is-trafficking-in-food