When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.

Whichever side is afraid tells you where the power actually sits. An arrangement in which ordinary people are careful about what they say has already changed character, whatever it is still called, while institutions that expect to be held to account behave differently from ones that do not. Accountability runs on consequence more than on good intentions.

The same holds at smaller scale. In your workplace or household, notice who is careful around whom. If people are managing their words around you, that says something about the position you occupy and how you have been using it.