User blog comment:Ralok/governments that lie/@comment-730941-20100719065101

Strange topic for a Mass Effect blog, but I'll bite.

What you said is very much correct - countries or governments can call themselves whatever they like, and whatever the formal name is everyone else has to call it that. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea might not be democratic, popular or a republic - but 'we', as in the rest of the world, have to call it that because that is the formal name. There's also the 'Democratic Republic of Congo', which is hardly democratic either. A half dozen other examples also spring to mind - authoritarian countries calling themselves democratic is nothing new. Essentially they're maintaining a veneer of 'democracy', because admitting to the truth (The Insane Dictatorship of North Korea, for example) is not something dictators or autocracies are good at, or like doing.