Paper Lion posted:

odo was explicitly brought in because dukat was trying to do his benevolent dictator thing and wanted to use odo as a way to show he was "fair" by having someone not cardassian and therefore to his eyes impartial as his investigator in a case, and it kept going from there. odos whole thing with the idea of justice and order are a specist essentialism because all founders have that and it was being exploited, and no one involved knew. hell, the show only very rarely motions towards that connection. odo fundamentally didnt have a choice in getting into that position, and he felt that by doing it in a way he felt was objective could be the most fair to the bajorans without having to risk himself getting caught actually helping them, and that position hardened a little. thats why kira cuts him slack, odo had a gun to his head to perform his duties the same way any other bajoran did. that said, he definitely starts the show full on in his fascism and part of what makes him interesting is because he doesnt exactly have an arc, but more goes in a circle, growing and understanding his role in things only to at the end take his place in the fascist gestalt collective in the hopes that the things and people he has seen will affect them the way it has him.