: Re: what techniques or approaches can I use to explore distasteful concepts while also making them necessary? In my story democracy crumbles in a nation, replaced by a powerful dictatorship. Our world

@Correia211

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There are dozens of ways to handle this. The question for you is, how do you want to compare democracy to fascism? Is efficiency the key metric? Is resilience to changing conditions the key metric? How about personal freedom and growth? Compliance with moral and religious teachings? Do you believe that absolute power corrupts absolutely? Or perhaps you believe that the end justifies the means? I could go on but you should see where I am going. You have to pick a viewpoint and marshal the arguments both pro and con around that viewpoint. Otherwise you are signing up to write a multi-volume tome on political theory. I am guessing that is not what you want to do.

There are many books that would provide the political science, philosophical, and moral arguments that would serve as useful background. I am not going to list any because I think that you would be well served to do your own research. Your viewpoint of choice will be sharpened by grinding through the material.

Once you have chosen your viewpoint, the question is how to expose the pros and cons. What I would want to do is show rather than tell. Take an issue such as the use of biological weapons. Build a scenario that compares the reaction of the democratic process to the fascist process. Create a situation where the fascist process will work better than the democratic process. Draw intelligent, well-meaning characters in both processes. Show them working (or failing to work) their way through the process. Mourn for the losers. Celebrate the winners, but note in passing that the winners have paid a price for their victory. The biological weapons killed the aliens but at the cost of millions of human lives. Make the page bleed. Make the survivors haunted.

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