A dictatorship is a government headed by a dictator or more generally any authoritarian
or totalitarian government. It is considered to be the polar opposite
of a democracy. A dictatorship is often seen as equivalent to a police state, but the term dictatorship refers to the way the leaders gain
and hold power, not the watch kept on the citizens. Some dictators have been popular enough not to have to employ many very
oppressive measures. The term generally has a pejorative meaning in reference to a government that does not allow a nation to
determine its own political direction by popular election.
Originally a legitimate military office in the Roman Republic, a "dictator" was an official given emergency powers by the
Senate. The dictator had absolute power, but for a limited time. This was
initially intended to deal with some state of emergency. In
modern times, claims of such states of emergency are often used to justify seizures of power and suspensions of civil rights.
Styles
In the 20th century, the term dictatorship has come to mean a
form of government in which absolute power is concentrated in
the hands of a dictator and sometimes his supporters; it can also refer to the consolidation of power by a single-party,
military, head of state, or head of government. Dictators had several characteristics:
- Many dictators have held the formal title of "President", but wield
extraordinary, often non-constitutional or de facto powers. In the case of many African or Asian former colonies, after achieving their independence, the presidential regime was gradually transformed
into a dictatorship, but the title nominally remained. Communist
dictators, by contrast, often held different titles, such as "General
Secretary."
- Some dictators that have come to power by a military coup gain or continue to hold a military post - this is the common case
in the Latin American dictatorial regimes.
- The fascist regimes created in Europe
after World War I brought back ancient national and religious traditions,
confronting them with political models considered to be foreign or imposed by foreigners (an euphemism for democracy).
Types of dictatorships
Dictators can come to power in a variety of different ways. They can:
- In a dictatorship, there are no regular, fair, and competitive elections. However, sometimes dictators can initially obtain
power from democratic elections, but shortly after being elected the dictator will ban all opposing parties and cancel all future
elections. Though free elections will never occur under a dictatorship, sometimes dictators orchestrate show elections in an attempt to grant themselves some illusion of democratic
legitimacy and public support. Usually, the dictator runs for "re-election" unopposed, with voters being asked to answer a simple
"yes or no" ballot on the leader's continued rule. As can be expected, coercion and corruption usually plague such "elections"
and dictators will often claim unrealistically high voter turnouts and
results.
- be appointed by the resident ruling party hierarchy;
- inherit their position from a deceased relative (see below);
- Often, a dictator creates what is known as a family
dictatorship in which leadership of the country passes to the dictator's son, brother, or other relative after his death.
This makes the country into a sort of monarchy.
"Dictatorship of the proletariat"
The dictatorship of the
proletariat is defined by Marxist theory as the use of state power by the
working class against its enemies during the passage from capitalism to communism, entailing
control of the state apparatus and the means of production.
After this intermediate socialist phase, Marx theorized that communism's final
stage would be a classless society in which the bourgeoisie has been
eliminated and the masses (the proletariat) have full control.
Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks during the First Russian
Revolution and first ruler of the Soviet Union, created the concept of
the "vanguard of the proletariat." He believed that a successful Communist revolution could be achieved by professional
revolutionaries who would presumably represent the proletariat. Lenin's expansion upon Marx's original theory of communism
came to be known as Marxism-Leninism, an ideology that held significant worldwide
influence following the successful Bolshevik Revolution in
Russia. Under Joseph Stalin the phrase, in practice, also essentially
came to be understood as a dictatorship in the name of the proletariat.
History of Dictatorship
For most of history dictatorship has been the most common form of rule. In early European history power was held by a variety
of absolute monarchs who ruled their kingdoms with virtually
unlimited powers. As the years went on, political liberalism began to spread,
and so too did the rise of nation states, constitutions, and democracy. Monarchs lost most of
their powers to elected assemblies and in some cases were abolished altogether, and replaced by republics. In several countries such reforms spiraled out of control, and amid the power vacuum created, certain leaders would arise out of the confusion and seize control. Following the
French Revolution, for example, power was rapidly consolidated by
future dictator Napoleon Bonaparte. Still, it can be argued
that Napoleon's rule was not any more autocratic than that of most neighbouring monarchies.
In the postwar period, the wave of de-colonization in Africa yielded many forms of non-democratic government, especially
military dictatorships, in large measure due to the
historical development of the colonial-state in several stages. Consolidation of the colonial-state rarely entailed strong
institutionalization, regularization, and rationalization of colonial administration. For the most part, colonial administration
relied on narrow support-bases, which essentially consisted of networks of indigenous collaborators, in order reduce the cost of
bureaucratic and military administration. In that vein favoritism dominated, as colonial powers played local populations against
each other, and fostered elite classes of political collaborators. Upon independence, the newly independent states - poorly
equipped to govern due to weak institutions, the lack of popular representation, conflict over the allocation of resources and
power, and problems of stateness - were
often left with power vacuums, and dictatorship of many variants were likely to fill the void.
The Cold War greatly increased the number of dictatorships, with many dictators able to seize or consolidate power by catering
to the interests of either superpower. Upon the end of the Cold War, a series
of non-democratic governments (including the Soviet Union itself) quickly collapsed, or met demands for democratization without
having collapsed, and were replaced by transitional governments, which have been, in many cases, steps toward democratization.
However, many regime openings have resulted in the emergence of new non-democratic regimes.
Today, dictatorship has reached an all time global low. Transitions to democratic rule have occurred in nearly all Western
states. Democratization has made great strides in Latin America as well. However, non-democratic governments remain common in
Africa and Asia.
A global diffusion effect, stemming from the waves of democratization in Southern Europe in the 1970s, Latin America in the
1980s, post-Communist Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and finally Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s, has arguably
rendered the application of citizenship to government institutions, the "spirt of the times" across many regions.
Regimes that have been described as dictatorships
Europe
South America
Africa
Asia
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