A
dictatorship is defined as an
autocratic form of government in which the
government is ruled by an individual, the
dictator, without hereditary ascension. It has three possible meanings:
- Roman dictator are a republic political office of the Roman Republic. Roman dictators were allocated absolute power during times of emergency. Their power was originally neither arbitrary nor unaccountable, being subject to law and requiring retrospective justification. There were no such dictatorships after the beginning of the 2nd century BC, and later dictators such as Sulla and the Roman Emperors exercised power much more personally and arbitrarily.
- A government controlled by one person or a small group of people.
- In contemporary usage, dictatorship refers to an autocratic form of absolute rule by leadership unrestricted by law, constitutions, or other social and political factors within the state.
The most recent, highly-publicized example of a
state that was
undeniably a dictatorship was
Germany in
World War II, which was under the absolute rule of
Adolf Hitler.
For some scholars, dictatorship is a form of government that has the power to govern without consent of those being governed, while
totalitarianism describes a state that regulates nearly every aspect of public and private behavior of the people. In other words, dictatorship concerns the source of the governing power (where the power comes from) and totalitarianism concerns the scope of the governing power (what is the government). In this sense, dictatorship (government without people's consent) is a contrast to
democracy (government whose power comes from people) and totalitarianism (government controls every aspect of people's life) opposes
pluralism (government allows multiple lifestyles and opinions). Though the definitions of the terms differ, they are related in reality as most of the dictatorship states tend to show totalitarian characteristics. When governments' power does not come from the people, their power is not limited and tend to expand their scope of power to control every aspect of people's life.
Examples of distinctive titles adopted by dictators
Disparate
authoritarian political leaders in various official positions assumed, formally or not, similar titles suggesting the power to speak for the nation itself.
In the 1930s and 1940s
Such titles used by heads of state and/or government during the
Second World War include:
- Vodca ("Leader") monsignor Jozef Tiso, from 1942 self-styled, in Slovakia, President 1939 - 1945 (acting to 26 October 1939).
- Vozhd (Russian for "Chief" in reference to Stalin being the Chief or a guide to the working class) - referred to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
- There was a Serbian Nationalist precedent, the style Vozhd in the uprising against the Ottomans, meaning Chief (from 26 December 1808, Supreme Chief 14 February 1804 - 3 October 1813 George Karađorđe Petrović, b. 1762 - d. 1817).
- Poglavnik Nezavisne Drzave Hrvatske ("Chief of the Independent State of Croatia") Ante Pavelic, in power in Croatia 10 April 1941 - 6 May 1945
- el Caudillo de España ("the Chieftain of Spain") Generalísimo Francisco Franco Bahamonde, Jefe de Estado (Chief of State) and Prime Minister. He adopted this title for himself and came to power after winning the bloody Spanish civil war. During World War II he maintained the neutrality of Spain. In fact the titles of Franco and Salazar (in Portugal) were used officially and rather than personally (cf: "mein führer" or "mi duce" my duce and my fuhrer). It is alleged that it was often used as a protocolary title; preceded by By the Grace of God it would indicate that the Spanish People had been luckily spared from the Soviet invasion.
Other 'leaders' of contemporary political groups who never achieved power:
- El Jefe 'The Chief' Jorge González von Marées of the Chilean Nacistas (Chilean-Spanish word for "Nazis"), who failed a coup d'état in 1938.
- Vozhd 'Leader' Konstantin Rodzaevsky of the Russian Fascist Party, only active in exile in Manchuria, most admired Mussolini but saw action only in the anti-Communist service of the Japanese Empire.
- Netaji (Leader) Subhas Chandra Bose, a messianic Indian nationalist, a former president of the Indian National Congress, he escaped British surveillance and went over to Germany, and from there went to Japan in a German U-boat and later, a Japanese submarine. While he commanded the Indian National Army and was the leader of the Provisional Government of Free India, which had limited and notional sovereignty over Axis controlled Indian territory, he was dependent on the Japanese, and overseas Indians for logistics, and military support.
In areas occupied by the Axis powers, some states or ethnic-cultural communities aspiring to national self-determination found they were not handed real power by their victorious German allies as they had hoped. Their nationalist leaders, too weak to gain control independently, were simply used as pawns.
Such Nazi collaborators include
De Leider "leader"
Staf De Clercq of the VNV (Flemish National League) in
Flanders (the Dutch-speaking northern majority of Belgium), who had dreamed of a 'Diets' nation uniting Flanders, the Netherlands and
Frans-Vlaanderen (the French part of historic Flanders, united with Belgium into one military occupation zone and
Reichskommissariat). Even when the Germans decided in December 1944, after the allied breakthrough, to carve up Belgium, leaving only bicultural capital Brussels under the
Reichskommissar, the post of
Landsleider van het Vlaamsche Volk ('Land leader of the Flemish people') of the new
Reichsgau (integral 'Germanic' part of the Reich, in this case merely on paper) (
Flandern,
Vlaanderen in Dutch; capital Anwerp) went to another collaborating party, Devlag, in the person of
Jef Van de Wiele (1902 - 1979), 15 December 1944 - 1945, in exile in Germany as the Allied controlled all Belgium since September 1944; meanwhile in the Francophone south of Belgium, partially reconquered by German troops (December 1944 - January 1945), the equivalent post of
Chef du Peuple Wallon ('Leader of the Walloon People'), at the head of the
Reichsgau Wallonien, went to
Léon Degrelle (in exile in Germany) of the Belgicist Rex Party.
Postwar Era and the Cold War
In the
postwar era, dictatorship became a frequent feature of military government, especially in
Latin America,
Asia, and
Africa. In the case of many 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 the personalization of power in the hands of the
dictator and his associates, making the political system uncertain.
During the
Cold War, the
United States and the
USSR managed to expand or maintain their influence zones by financing
paramilitary and political groups and encouraging
coups d'état, especially in Africa, that have led many countries to brutal
civil wars and consequent manifestations of authoritarianism. In Latin America the threat of either
communism or
capitalism was often used as justification for dictatorship.
Individual cases
- In the Korean 'dictature of the proletariat' Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il of North Korea, who are both historically and geographically far removed from any European influence, have used the titles Great Leader and Dear Leader, respectively.
Dictatorships in fiction
In fiction, dictatorship has sometimes been portrayed as the political system of choice for controlling
dystopian societies, such as in:
- President Maximilian II and then later President Thorne in the film Land of the Blind
- Jack in William Golding's "Lord of the Flies"
See also
Democracy Index by
The Economist, 2006. Countries marked in dark colors are authoritarian, and most often dictatorships. Most of current dictatorships are in Africa and Asia.
