Why can autocratic governments have elections, courts, and parliaments without being democracies?

Autocratic governments often maintain institutions like parliaments, courts, and elections to serve as a democratic facade, which helps them secure domestic and international legitimacy. While these structures mirror those found in constitutional democracies, they function fundamentally differently under autocratic rule.12

• Elections: In autocracies, elections are often noncompetitive or ritualistic. They may be used to demonstrate national unity or to provide a sense of participation without offering a genuine choice of leadership or policy. When opposition is permitted, it is frequently suppressed through intimidation, restricted access, or manipulation of the vote count.234
• Parliaments: Legislatures in these regimes typically lack independent power. They are often filled with political loyalists who do not challenge the executive, serving instead to rubber-stamp the leader's decisions or provide a veneer of representative governance.12
• Courts: While judicial systems exist, they are not independent of the executive branch. Through practices such as "telephone law," autocrats may directly influence the outcomes of sensitive cases to bypass legal norms and protect their interests.1

Ultimately, these institutions do not act as effective checks on power; rather, they are instruments used to maintain the concentration of power in a single center.2