The role of dictator was created for instances when a single leader was needed to command and restore stability. [136] Should a dictatorship fail, elections also permit dictators and elites to accept defeat without fearing violent recourse. An error occurred trying to load this video. One of the more dramatic examples of this kind of human rights abuse occurred in Myanmar in 2008. Other factors associated with military coups include extensive natural resources, limited use of the military internationally, and use of the military as an oppressive force domestically. [127] Foreign intervention takes place when another country seeks to topple a regime by invading the country or supporting the opposition. [19], Military dictatorships are regimes in which military officers hold power, determine who will lead the country, and exercise influence over policy. As you start to memorize this lesson's details, you'll grow in your ability to: To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. Monarchies may be dynastic, in which the royal family serves as a ruling institution similar to a political party in a one-party state, or they may be non-dynastic, in which the monarch rules independently of the royal family as a personalist dictator. The group may be military or political, it may be organized or disorganized, and it may disproportionately represent a certain demographic. [90] These new African governments were marked by severe instability, which provided opportunities for regime change and made fair elections a rare occurrence on the continent. ", "Dictators and Their Followers: A Theory of Dictatorship", "The many Robespierres from 1794 to the present", "A Family of Political Concepts: Tyranny, Despotism, Bonapartism, Caesarism, Dictatorship, 1750-1917", "The Age of the Caudillos: A Chapter in Hispanic American History", "Europe Will be a Fascist Europe: July 1934May 1936", "African military coups d'tat, 19562001: frequency, trends and distribution", "From Protest to Change of Regime: The 419 Revolt and The Fall of the Rhee Regime in South Korea*", "The waning of the military coup in Arab politics", "Introduction: Studying Communist Dictatorships: From Comparative to Transnational History", "Military Coups and Military Rule in Latin America", "Cuba: The United States and Batista, 1952-58", "The Predicament of Europe's 'Last Dictator', "The Kremlin Emboldened: How Putin Wins Support", "The Resistible Rise of Vladimir Putin: Russia's Nightmare Dressed Like a Daydream", "Biden suggests Putin is a 'dictator' who has committed 'genocide half a world away', "5. Thus, the proclamation of emergency rule was the beginning of the dictatorships of Mussolini in Italy, of Kemal Atatrk in Turkey, of Jzef Pisudski in Poland, of Antnio de Olveira Salazar in Portugal, of Franz von Papen and Hitler in Germany, and of Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt von Schuschnigg in Austria. Exceptions to the pattern of poverty in dictatorships include oil-rich Middle Eastern dictatorships and the East Asian Tigers during their periods of dictatorship. [129] Revolution takes place when the opposition group grows large enough that elites in the regime cannot suppress it or choose not to. Dictatorships in the Middle East and Northern Africa are either illiberal republics in which a president holds power through unfair elections, or they are absolute monarchies in which power is inherited. [59] Shoguns were de facto military dictators in Japan beginning in 1185 and continuing for over six hundred years. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/dictatorship, dictatorship - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), dictatorship - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). During the 19th and 20th centuries, many monarchies (a form of dictatorship) started to decline and disappear. [115], The Middle East and Northern Africa did not undergo liberalization during the third wave of democratisation, and most countries in this region remain dictatorships in the 21st century. [88] European fascism was imported to Latin America as well, and the Vargas Era of Brazil was heavily influenced by the corporatism practiced in fascist Italy. Current leader Kim Jong-un has consolidated his power, purging . They may also employ techniques of mass propaganda in order to sustain their public support. 2023. In modern times, it's not unusual to hear news stories about dictators being elected by their citizens, when in fact the elections are manipulated through intimidation of voters to ensure the dictator's victory. [85] After being defeated in World War II, the far-right dictatorships of Europe collapsed, with the exceptions of Spain and Portugal. They are not held accountable for their actions and are free to do as they please, even limiting citizens' freedom and rights. [32], One-party dictatorships became prominent in Asia and Eastern Europe during the Cold War as communist governments were installed in several countries. Later 20th-century dictators in Latin America were different. Dictatorship is the special type of ruling over a country. Alfred says, Write an essay of approximately one to two pages that describes the characteristics of life under a dictatorship. Nearly half of dictatorships start as a military coup, though others have been started by foreign intervention, elected officials ending competitive elections, insurgent takeovers, popular uprisings by citizens, or legal maneuvering by autocratic elites to take power within their government. A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, who hold governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. In the Roman Republic, the title "dictator" was temporarily given to an individual to deal with state crises and emergencies. [95] A similar phenomenon took place in Korea, where Kim Il-sung created a Soviet-backed communist dictatorship in North Korea[96] and Syngman Rhee created a US-backed nationalist dictatorship in South Korea. [25], One-party dictatorships are governments in which a single political party dominates politics. According to Ford, Dictatorship is the assumption of extra-legal authority by the Head of the State. [133] A study found that dictatorships that engage in oil drilling are more likely to remain in power, with 70.63% of the dictators who engage in oil drilling still being in power after 5 years of dictatorship, while only 59.92% of the non-oil producing dictators survive the first 5 years. scholarly analysis of Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin and Mao, as well as Kim Il-sung of North Korea; Franois Duvalier, or Papa Doc, of Haiti; Nicolae Ceauescu of Romania; and Mengistu Haile Mariam of Ethiopia. [42] Within a personalist regime an issue called "The dictators dilemma" arises. Learn the definition of a dictatorship and its main characteristics. Democracy Features & Examples | What is a Democratic Country? [54], Asia saw several military dictatorships during the post-classical era. Such elites have typically exercised power to maintain the economic and political status quo. [143], Terrorism is less common in dictatorships. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini coined the term totalitario in the early 1920s to characterize the new fascist state of Italy, which he further described as "all within the state, none outside the state, none . Military dictators may also be less trusting or diplomatic and underestimate the use of bargaining and compromise in politics. They are often unstable, and the average duration of a military dictatorship is only five years, but they are often followed by additional military coups and military dictatorships. The term dictatorship comes from the Latin title dictator, which in the Roman Republic designated a temporary magistrate who was granted extraordinary powers in order to deal with state crises. Although similar in some respects to the dictatorships of the new countries, the caudillos of 19th- and 20th-century Latin America represented a very different type of monocratic rule. Summary. In democracies, the threat of a military coup is associated with the period immediately after a democracy's creation but prior to large-scale military reforms. Updates? To save this word, you'll need to log in. Elites are also the primary political threats of a dictator, as they can leverage their power to influence or overthrow the dictatorship. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced searchad free! Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. [98] Several Middle Eastern countries were the subject of military coups in the 1950s and 1960s, including Iraq, Syria, North Yemen, and South Yemen. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Most dictatorship countries do not refer to their leader as a dictator, but rather as kings, presidents, prime ministers, etc. Secret police are used to gather information about specific political opponents and carry out targeted acts of violence against them, paramilitary forces defend the regime from coups, and formal militaries defend the dictatorship during foreign invasions and major civil conflicts. Preference falsification, Internal politics, data scarcity, and restriction of media are just a few examples of the dangers of a personalistic authoritarian regime. Instead, dictators have ordinary titles such as president, emperor, great leader and similar monikers. In the Aristotelian classification of government, there were two forms of rule by the few: aristocracy and its debased form, oligarchy. [31], Personalist dictatorships are regimes in which all of the power lies in the hands of a single individual. While a dictatorship is a form of government in some nations, just as monarchy or representative democracy is the form of government in others, dictatorships are seen by non-dictatorships as dangerous and cruel because of the way they tend to treat their citizens. The term "dictatorship" comes from the Latin word "dictator." The country suffered for many years under his, His enemies accused him of establishing a, Today, Russia under President Vladimir Putin is an autocracy verging on military, Lest this only conjure up images of a repressive, The latter includes the now-defunct dark web market Hydra as well as North Koreas infamous Lazarus Group, a team of hackers that carries out sophisticated cyber and crypto robberies to support the, After seven brutal years in power, the Armed Forces finally withdrew from the Executive, allowing open elections in which Alfonsn handily took the popular vote with a mandate to investigate the crimes committed during the 1976-1983 military, Inevitably, during his life, Pel encountered problems: his commercial activities were sometimes mired in controversy; at one stage he was labeled a left-wing antagonist of the Brazilian government, then was later described as being too conservative in his views of the Brazilian, Chilean author Nona Fernndez grew up alongside the violence of the Pinochet, At least since the infamous dread pirate Captain Flint haunted the pages of Robert Louis Stevensons Treasure Island, pirate vessels have been treated in the popular imagination as floating, Post the Definition of dictatorship to Facebook, Share the Definition of dictatorship on Twitter. [86] After a brief period of democratization, Latin America underwent a rapid transition toward dictatorship in the 1930s. Get unlimited access to over 88,000 lessons. It has fewer advantages than disadvantages Advantages Low crime rates. Dictatorships can be formed by a military coup that overthrows the previous government through force or they can be formed by a self-coup in which elected leaders make their rule permanent. President Biden is expected to make his reelection announcement as soon as Tuesday, beginning the 80-year-old career politician's final campaign. Approximately ten percent of the countries in the world today are considered dictatorships. Industrialization produces new, differentiated elites that replace the small leadership groupings that once controlled social, economic, and political power in the society. Political scientists such as Juan Jos Linz and Samuel P. Huntington identify key attributes that define the power structure of a dictatorship, including a single leader or a small group of leaders, the exercise of power with few limitations, limited political pluralism, and limited mass mobilization. Soviet-type communist dictatorships arose in central and eastern Europe, China, and other countries in the wake of World War II, though most of them (as well as the Soviet Union itself) had collapsed by the last decade of the 20th century. A dictatorship is a form of government where one person, or a small group of individuals, can make decisions without effective constitutional limitations. Between 1967 and 1991, 12 Latin American countries underwent at least one military coup, with Haiti and Honduras experiencing three and Bolivia experiencing eight. Mao established the People's Republic of China as a one-party communist state under his governing ideology of Maoism. The 20th century saw the rise of fascist and communist dictatorships in Europe; fascism was eradicated in the aftermath of World War II in 1945, while communism spread to other continents, maintaining prominence until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The crucial elements of both were the identification of the state with the single mass party and of the party with its charismatic leader, the use of an official ideology to legitimize and maintain the regime, the employment of a terroristic police force and a controlled press, and the application of all the means of modern science and technology to control the economy and individual behaviour. [116] Dictatorships in the Middle East are primarily guided by Islamic nationalism. Fascism, in its National Socialist form, was primarily a counterrevolutionary movement that mobilized middle- and lower middle-class groups to pursue nationalistic and militaristic goals and whose sole principle of organization was obedience to the Fhrer. Rule by dictators has taken several different forms. He began his rule in 2011 and has been the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea since 2012.

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