Basic Trope: An authoritarian regime has good infrastructure.
- Straight: The People's Republic of Ruritania spies on its citizens, uses the death penalty for everything from stealing a loaf of bread to murder, disallows critical or insufficiently reverential comment about the government or its leaders, forcibly sterilizes anyone whose genes it feels are not "good enough" for its Super Breeding Program, and forces people to take Happy Pills. But at least there are good schools, top-notch hospitals (all paid for), and the trains run on time.
- Exaggerated:
- Ruritania's autocratic regime has a strong grip on its civilians, but the economy is secure, the borders are strong, culture is vibrant, and homelessness and poverty have significantly decreased. The government goes above and beyond in supporting its own people, and the average citizen still has certain liberties (although maintined and held in line by the state). The only thing that makes Rurutania's government "autocratic" is that none of the leaders were voted into power.
- Not only do the trains run on time, they run five minutes ahead of schedule! And there are two chickens in every pot.
- Ruritania is a shining beacon of prosperity and technological development in a sea of incompetently run democracies — sort of an inversion of Good Republic, Evil Empire.
- The communist government of Ruritania even treats robotic androids, aliens, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities equally. Furthermore, the government of Ruritania also consists entirely of LGBTQ+ people. The nation has already entered Post-Scarcity Economy when compared to other nations.
- Downplayed:
- The People's Republic of Ruritania provides enough Bread and Circuses to stay popular.
- The People's Republic of Ruritania isn't fascist or communist, per se, but it's tough on crime and drugs, the social status quo is strict, and most of the media are government-controlled, and overall society in Ruritania is rather more efficient than in its more democratic neighbour, Tropeland.
- The People's Republic of Ruritania is efficient at producing today's goods and services enmasse but is horrible at innovating and adapting to change.
- Justified:
- The People's Party of Ruritania wants to prevent an uprising or the Les Collaborateurs from happening, so it decides to provide everything its citizens could want (and then some), to keep people on their side and make them like the PPR regime.
- Ruritania is going through some tough times, and has resorted to drastic measures of supression and censorship to force the people to be loyal. That being said, they still use government funding to supply basic needs to the people because the rulers believe that they have a duty to "protect" the population.
- Society will crumble under a democracy or a democratic republic or a constitutional monarchy.
- Inverted:
- Under the People's Republic of Ruritania, infrastructure fails miserably. The currency becomes worthless, schools, hospitals, farms, and factories close, people starve and resort to eating rats (and each other), and the trains are always late.
- Anarchy Is Chaos
- Any type of non-authoritarian government is shown to do a much better job of maintaining Ruritania's infrastructure than any authoritarian regime did.
- Subverted:
- The authoritarian regime's infrastructure is impressively efficient and well-maintained ... for the elite class and visiting journalists. Behind the façade and propaganda, it's falling apart.
- The authoritarian regime's infrastructure looks more advanced but is Awesome, but Impractical. The maglev trains everywhere use more power and carry less than freight trains on wood tie tracks and the slower trains can handle tighter turns which allow for better service within the geography. Besides, buses would be cheaper still.
- Double Subverted:
- The regime's lower classes have a much lower standard of living than the elites, but further examination reveals that the basic necessities are taken care of, with budget left over for enough Bread and Circuses to prevent widespread discontent.
- The Awesome, but Impractical tech is Conspicuous Consumption because they're just that good.
- Parodied:
- An old Ruritanian man says that the former People's Party of Ruritania government executed, abducted, and unpersoned thousands of people, set up a massive Sinister Surveillance system, drove nearly everyone into severe paranoia because anybody could be an informer, waged a Forever War with bordering countries, and broadcast annoying propaganda on any given corner. Then he says that he misses them nonetheless, because the PPR provided free universal health care, even though the equipment was badly obsolete and clinics crowded. Oh, and the trains — though also outdated and uncomfortable — ran on time.
- There's a military coup in heretofore democratic but struggling Ruritania. As soon as The Generalissimo has consolidated his power, reports from the country, which alluded without fail to the state of disrepair of its roads, bridges, canals, ports, railways, etc., turn on a dime and describe them as being state-of-the-art. This applies whether the alleged improvements were real, tangible, and meaningful; whether they were negligible or illusory; or whether it's become even worse. (This could also be inverted if a democratic regime replaces the authoritarian one.)
- In an international list of countries by performance metrics, changes in democratic quality bring about inverse changes in infrastructure quality and vice versa. This isn't even PRR propaganda — it comes from one or more neutral or enemy countries/organizations.
- Zig-Zagged:
- Some of the PRR's infrastructure is good, while other parts aren't.
- A totalitarian movement takes over, establishes a "People's Republic of Ruritania", and embarks on a program of national infrastructure repair and replacement as needed, but then the leaders decide to discontinue it. But then they order attention returned to infrastructure — only to find that everybody overseeing this program is inept, crooked, or both. So, they're replaced with honest experts, who make infrastructure in the PRR good. But then they displease the Powers That Be for some other reason and are eliminated from the government...
- Averted:
- Ruritania is not governed by an authoritarian regime — just a nice, if regrettably a bit corrupt, democratic government, or good old monarchy.
- Ruritania has no formal government.
- Enforced: "Okay, there is no way that your dystopia would be able to survive this long. Fix it!" "Okay, fine. let's say the trains run on time."
- Lampshaded: "All according to the old saying: if you want a truly efficient government, you end up with a dictatorship."
- Invoked: An authoritarian regime takes over Ruritania and wants to establish or maintain its credibility to the masses.
- Exploited: The PRR launches an immigration campaign (with a message to the effect of "We're harsh and things work here, dammit") that is one hundred percent true.
- Defied: The PRR decides it's not responsible for infrastructure and lets everything be privatized.
- Discussed: "How do you get things done around here?" "By doing everything right."
- Conversed: "Did you know they based the hyper-efficient country, Ruritania, on Nazi Germany?" "Right, like that Star Trek episode. Only now that perception is Dated History."
- Implied:
- Nothing is known of Ruritania's form of government, but its law is effective, if strict; its police force, while a bit harsh, keeps order perfectly; Ruritanian towns are clearly vibrant and flourishing, and trains do run on time.
- Ruritania seems like a nice place, but its citizens have a constant paranoia that goes unexplained.
- Deconstructed:
- The Ruritanian people decide efficiency isn't worth the price of repression and revolt.
- The repression interferes with the efficiency and people's quality of life, and the PPR loses an election it had designed to be a downhill battle for itself.
- Reconstructed: The less authoritarian new government gets in over its head, with a depression setting in that it can't fix despite all efforts. The PPR replaces it, either by counterrevolution or at the next election, having demonstrated its Vetinari Job Security.
- Played for Drama: Alice and Bob want Ruritania to be democratic and the story focuses on their angst that too few of their co-nationals are willing to join them because they appreciate the efficient infrastructure.
- Played for Horror: The efficiency is in the repression alone, with People Farms and other enterprises that use Human Resources liberally driving Ruritania's economy.
- Played for Laughs: Repression in Ruritania consists of the State Sec doling out Amusing Injuries to lawbreakers while everything else works well.
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