The Economist examines another Authoritarian Govt

Why is Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro still in power?

"NICOLÁS MADURO, Venezuela’s president, is deeply unpopular. Four out of five Venezuelans think his government is doing a bad job."

"Mr Maduro has his predecessor to thank for his survival. During his 14-year presidency, Hugo Chávez systematically weakened all the main institutions in the country, stacking everything in the ruling party’s favour, and ensuring opposition-led change would be challenging or impossible."

This is relevant to the U.S. situation, given the time remaining to the midterm elections:

"Only one institution remains independent, and that is the national assembly. It became opposition-controlled after a massive swing vote in December 2015. But that has not really mattered to Mr Maduro. He can instruct his compliant supreme court to overrule the assembly as required."

Also relevant:

"The opposition has come to the conclusion that its only viable option is to take to the streets. It hopes mass protests will demonstrate who really holds majority power in Venezuela, and prompt serious concessions from the government, or even some sort of uprising. But Mr Maduro holds a trump card: the army. The supposedly neutral but heavily politicised institution is semi-embedded in Venezuela’s political structure. Officers or former officers run 11 of the government’s 32 ministries."