It was a stunning victory. As results began to trickle in from around the countryspin fever, they showed the opposition winning by a more than two-to-one margin. The once-formidable political machine in power proved to be no match for millions of voters who sent a clear message to their authoritarian leader: Your time is up.

But despite the landslide, the ruling party ignored the will of the people, and the leader’s allies proclaimed him president.

Those events took place in Poland in 1989 under the rule of Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski. But they could just as well have described Venezuela in the aftermath of its presidential election on July 28. The cases differ in key ways — unlike Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, Mr. Jaruzelski was never accused of misrepresenting election tallies (as I strongly believe Mr. Maduro has done), and the election in Poland was for the legislature, which then appointed Mr. Jaruzelski president. But I believe there is something to be learned from this comparison, and especially from its aftermath.

As the international community contemplates how to react to Mr. Maduro’s apparent election theft, a sense of understandable fatigue has set in for observers hoping for an end to his long, corrosive and antidemocratic rule. After all, it seems either the international community or the country’s opposition have tried just about everything. Targeted sanctions aimed at regime officials? Done that. Oil sanctions to starve the government of resources? Tried that, too. Easing sanctions as an incentive to hold free elections? That didn’t work, either. Put a $15 million reward on his head? Try to spur a military uprising? Check, check. None of it worked.

All these attempts had one principal goal in common: to drive Mr. Maduro from power. And of course, since the problem with dictators is that they hold power illegitimately, wanting to drive them out makes all the sense in the world. But we don’t always get what we want.

This is where the Polish example comes in. Rather than stepping down after the humiliating loss in the parliamentary elections, Mr. Jaruzelski came to an agreement with the opposition Solidarity movement. Mr. Jaruzelski would continue to formally head the government as president and his Communist party would also maintain control of the interior and defense ministries. A Solidarity leader would become prime minister, with the power to appoint his cabinet.

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