History Main / DisasterDemocracy

* In ''HighSchoolOfTheDead'', Shidou stages an 'election' amongst the survivors fleeing by bus, after the bus is packed with his cult of personality.

* In the chaos that ushered in the Russian Civil War, Red Army units nonetheless elected their commanders (never "officers") by popular vote. This practice declined as the conflict wore on, however, until it was abolished by [[LeonTrotsky Trotsky]].
* Some democratic countries in the world end up collapsing due to this, whether due to terrorism or coup d'etats. Some people can even argue that the United States is approaching this due to what they see as large numbers of corrupt Congress members being more concerned about the status quo than actually ''running the country.'' The shutdown earlier in 2014 didn't help matters.

* An episode of MyNameIsEarl flashes back to the gang's experience in Y2K: convinced the world has ended and they're the only surviving humans (not realizing that everybody is just at the parade), the gang decides to live in a Big Lots, and at first they try each living in their own isolationist area of the store, then after Randy resolves a conflict, they unanimously elect him President, which grants him absolutely no power or authority.

*** Generally, its government mostly resembles the United States. However, both Aradesh and his daughter Tandi were presidents-for-life (though they did hold regular and mostly fair elections), and the major reason the presidency never became hereditary is that Tandi's son is thicker than a yard of lard. The legislative branch is openly dominated by business interests, and corruption is a fair bit more common than in the modern day US. Still, it's far better than both the pre-war US government and most contenders in the wasteland.

** There's also the New California Republic, which is a tribal village made up of Vault 15 survivors turned US {{expy}}. By ''[[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas New Vegas]]'' it has grown exponentially, having taken all of California through aggressive expansion and is looking to colonise [[VivaLasVegas the Mojave Wasteland]]. Generally, its government mostly resembles the United States, but is probably a little more corrupt (and currently trending towards authoritarianism).
*** Specifically, a little more corrupt and currently trending towards authoritarianism compared to ''our'' United States. They've a long, long way to go before they reach the corruption and authoritarianism of the pre-War USA of Fallout (for one thing, they don't use peaceful protestors for human experimentation).

* In the chaos that ushered in the Russian Civil War, Red Army units nonetheless elected their commanders (never "officers") by popular vote. This practice declined as the conflict wore on, however, until it was abolished by [[LeonTrostky Trotsky]].

* In the chaos that ushered in the Russian Civil War, Red Army units nonetheless elected their commanders (never "officers") by popular vote. This practice declined as the conflict wore on, however.

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* ''TheStand'' has a pretty lengthy scene dealing with this, as the new Boulder residents have their CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming as they vote to reinstate the US Constitution. Then they actually have to get down to the nitty-gritty of running the place and the protagonists ultimately form a ruling council with MagicalNegro Abagail at its head, because she's the reason everyone settled in Boulder in the first place.

* At the time of ''Series/{{Defiance}}'''s pilot episode, the titular town maintains an electoral process in which all citizens, human and Votan, get to vote for Mayor. It's unstated whether there's any continuity between Defiance's democratic practices and those of old St. Louis, or if the town's founders re-instituted the elections in accordance with this trope.

** Although this was a shock to Churchill and the rest of the Conservatives, it wasn't all that surprising in hindsight. The British people had just been through a six-year ordeal demonstrating what tremendous feats their country was capable of when a strong government was calling the shots. They decided they'd rather let Atlee and Labour put that power to work rebuilding the country than let Churchill and the Conservatives dismantle it after Japan was defeated.

* In the ''NovelsOfTheChange'', just about everyone resorts to some variety of monarchy when gunpowder and electricity stop working, but Corvallis sticks to its American roots and has the university committee arbit all decisions. This makes it something of a HiddenElfVillage.

** In ''IslandInTheSeaOfTime'' the election of a Chief Executive and development of a new goverment is a major plot.
* In ''WorldWarZ'' the ability to hold to the democratic process in the midst of a ZombieApocalypse is a major part of one of the survivors' stories.

* ''[[Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined Battlestar Galactica]]'' has two such elections, for vice president and president. Let's just say that the colonials got what they voted for when they elected Baltar.

* If you consider having your entire town abruptly transported back in time to 1632 in Europe a disaster, then ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' has a fine example. The small mining town decides to uphold American ideals and holds impromptu elections to determine who has what responsibility. Once the immediate crisis has passed, they plan to hold much more far-reaching elections, including the native people from the time period.

->''"Had every Athenian citizen been a Creator/{{Socrates}}, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob."''\\
--'''UsefulNotes/JamesMadison'''

* ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse'' subverts and parodies various aspects of this as the Golganfrinchan B Ark crew form committees to make fire, adopt the leaf as currency and then suggest burning down forests to avert inflation, and various others absurdities. But then again their population consists entirely of hair dressers, marketing executives, and telephone sanitizers. [[spoiler: They must have got their act together eventually, because they're [[AncientAstronauts humanity's ancestors]].]]

* Despite being all monarchies, ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' has the PlayerCharacter able to influence (or dictate) two elections for King during the oncoming Blight apocalypse. While just placing a new monarch guarantees soldiers, depending on the choices made beforehand is whether the kings (and/or queen) do well in the resulting peacetime.

* If you consider having your entire town abruptly transported back in time to 1632 in Europe, then ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' has a fine example. The small mining town decides to uphold American ideals and holds impromptu elections to determine who has what responsibility. Once the immediate crisis has passed, they plan to hold much more far-reaching elections, including the native people from the time period.

** The Confederacy's government during the final days of the Civil War follows this. Jefferson Davis and the remains of his administration fled from city to city with much of their records trying to maintain some semblance of authority until they were finally captured. However, there were two different Confederate Congresses elected, the first being elected in 1861, and the second in 1863 and 1864. For reference, currently, the 112th United States Congress sits.

* In MarvelComics' ''SecretWars'', practically the first thing the heroes do after the Beyonder transports them to Battleworld is to elect a leader (unsurprisingly, it turns out to be CaptainAmerica).
* In ''{{JLA-Avengers}}'' when the two teams team up Cap is once again chosen as the leader of all.

* In ''AllMannerOfBad'', the survivors are led by competent and benevolent 'dictator' Raul. When Heller is dissatisfied with being ordered around by a former employee [[TheIllegal without a green card]], he calls for elections. [[spoiler:Raul wins, of course.]] It helps to point out that [[strike:most]] ''all'' of their human antagonists are part of "kingdoms'' led by psychotic madmen and women.

* Mere trifles like WorldWarII or the Civil War do not stop the US from holding presidential elections, though in both cases the incumbent was reelected (in the Civil War at least, that was not a foregone conclusion: Lincoln was ''extremely'' unpopular for most of the campaign, until the tide began to turn late in 1864).

* Great Britain went one better: it held a general election towards the end of WorldWarII (between the defeat of Germany and the defeat of Japan) in which WinstonChurchill was swept out of office.

->''"Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob."''
-->-- '''JamesMadison'''

* Similar to ''LordOfTheFlies'', the ''Literature/{{Gone}}'' series features a population of children coming together to survive after all the adults suddenly disappear and they find themselves trapped inside a giant ethereal dome. The first book features an AffablyEvil young man stage a quasi-peaceful takeover of things only to be deposed when his corrupt "government"'s dirty secrets are exposed and things turn violent.