Dictatorship

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For other uses of the term, see dictator.

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Dictatorship, in contemporary usage, refers to absolute rule by a leadership (usually one dictator) unrestricted by law, constitutions, or other social and political factors within the state.

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Definitions

In Classical usage, a dictator referred to a constitutional extraordinary chief magistrate without a colleague in Ancient Rome, who temporarily received absolute power during times of emergency. Their power was neither arbitrary nor unaccountable, however, being subject to law and requiring retrospective justification. There were no such Roman dictators after the hated Sulla (81BC), and later de facto dictators were otherwise styled (such as Triumvir and the Princeps or Roman Emperor), and exercised power more personally and arbitrarily.

There are relatively few later cases of use of the title Dictator, see that article, often in a rather positive or neutral sense. This article deals with the negative, non-titular use of the notion, regardless of the individuals style.

Dictatorships in the modern sense tend to exert their power without any regard to the moral or ethical consequences of their actions. They hardly ever come to power by democratic means, often being installed by a coup d'état or revolution. Often they will assert that they are using their powers, like ancient Roman dictators, to deal with the enormity of some emergency, real or imagined. However, dictators and their governments rarely lay down their power once any such crisis has abated. In the lack thereof, they sometimes invent their own, such as in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin.

Such regimes survive out of the fear the people have for the government. Dictatorships often use armed force, propaganda, and arbitrary detention to enforce their will, and usually suppress any opinion which runs counter to their own. Dictators in single-party states, as opposed to military juntas, often create single-party states without elections, or with rigged or heavily biased ones.

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Power

The existence of dictatorships often relies solely upon the power which they are capable of exerting over their citizens. Without it, they usually disintegrate or are completely ineffectual, such as the Bolshevik government of Russia shortly after it came to power. Modern dictatorships have used not only force and coercion, but also the mass media as tools of control. In China for instance, a communist single-party state, the government controls all news broadcast in the country, censors the internet, and often simply detains those who resist.

The cultures created by many dictatorships foster what has been termed the "cult of personality", where not only is the media controlled by the state, but serves to glorify it and its leader. In Nazi Germany, a picture of Adolf Hitler appeared in nearly every building. Under Saddam Hussein, every news broadcast in Iraq began with a reference to himself. Entire art museums were filled with paintings of the leader. The underlying tendency to want absolute power and control has been termed megalomania. A form of governments which imposes absolute control and personality cults is sometimes known as totalitarianism, a term originated by Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy; it is used equally for right wing ('authoritarian') dictatorships and left-wing (Marxist) 'dictatorship of the proletariat'.

Some dictatorships are supported by much of the general public, such as in Nazi Germany. These regimes often usher in a period of calm after civil war or economic hard times. Again, the governments justify their methods as responses to the current crisis, even after it has abated. Dictatorships rarely retain lasting support, however. Eventually the people begin to push for greater freedoms, and the dictatorship is forced to employ more coercive tactics in order to survive. Such was the case in the communist regimes of the Soviet block and in the third world during the Cold War, many of which enjoyed initial popular support.

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Types

Dictatorships are broadly divided into two types: those defined by a totalitarian ideology and those with no clear ideological motive, although some may be a hybrid of the two. Regimes in developed nations are more often based in some ideology, such as in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. Most others are military dictatorships (popularly known as juntas), their sole purpose often being to maintain themselves. During the Cold War, many Western-backed regimes in the developing world were military dictatorships, like the case of Augusto Pinochet in Chile. In contrast to both groups, the reign of the fascist Francisco Franco in Spain, for example, fits completely into neither category.

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The 19th century

Template:Sect-stub In the 1860s, Queen Victoria of Great Britain expressed fears of dictatorial tendencies in her Prime Minister William Gladstone.

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The 20th century

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Interbellum

In the interwar era (between the First World War and the Second World War), fascist regimes, such as Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany, incorporated principles of dictatorship with a single-party state, mass mobilization and regimentation of social and economic activity, and arbitrary exercise of police power. The prototype of the fascist dictatorship was fashioned in Italy after 1922, and later emulated by Nazi Germany (beginning in 1933), as well as by a number of other fascist or quasi-fascist European governments during the 1930s. Fascist dictatorships were dealt a fatal blow by the defeat of the Axis Powers in World War II.

Also during the interwar era, the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin fused dictatorship with single-party rule, mass mobilization, and arbitrary use of power. Stalin was the first modern dictator who created cult of personality around himself. The Soviet Union emerged victorious in the Second World War and entered a new phase after Stalin's death, by shifting from a personal dictatorship to a collective, though still authoritarian, leadership.

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Postwar era

After the Second World War, which was fought in the name of eliminating fascist dictatorships, dictatorships formed in many newly independent countries as well as in the Soviet-controlled countries. In the case of most African or Asian former colonies, after achieving their independence in the postwar wave of decolonization, presidential regimes were gradually transformed into personal dictatorships. These regimes often proved unstable, with dictators being frequently overthrown and replaced in coups. Military dictatorships were very common, particularly in Latin America, for example with Augusto Pinochet in Chile and Africa, for example with Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire.

The collapse of communism in 1989 and 1990 led to the collapse of many dictatorships in eastern Europe. However, many of the states which resulted from the demise of the Soviet Union were controlled by authoritarian leaders, such as Saparmurat Niyazov in Turkmenistan. A number of these rulers were overthrown peacefully in the color revolutions of 2004 and 2005; however, these ended with the government massacre of many hundreds of people in Uzbekistan. In addition, the communist regimes in China, North Korea, Laos, and Vietnam did not fall and continue to survive. Many autocratic leaders still control countries in Africa, such as Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, with varying degrees of democracy.

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Sources and references

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See also

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