Those are two or more separate concepts (freedom of thought vs. the government being for the people) and don’t necessarily have to go together.

Also, authoritarianism occurs in a spectrum. Most of the countries that Westerners accuse of being authoritarian are only partially so, and only in certain aspects. On the other hand, there are legitimate arguments to be made that many Western powers are also partially authoritarian. So then the argument becomes about how much authoritarianism is acceptable. I think that this is too deep of a philosophical discussion to have in an online forum. At least I wouldn’t have the patience or energy to stick with it.