[43] This idea references the heavy reliance on repression of the public in order to stay in power, which creates incentives for all constituents to falsify their preferences, which does not allow for the dictator to know the genuine popular beliefs or his realistic measure of societal support. Elites are also the primary political threats of a dictator, as they can leverage their power to influence or overthrow the dictatorship. President Vladimir Putin is currently serving his fourth term as President of Russia. The rights of the people are typically suppressed in a dictatorship, sometimes to a great degree. The head of state may be unelected and still be classified as a democracy. Francois Duvalier (1907 - 1971) The Haitian dictator, also known as Papa Doc, governed the Americas' poorest country from 1957 to he died in 1971. Many countries which are seen as otherwise democratic are dictatorships because there has yet to be an alternation in power since their incumbent government has never lost an election. Examples of Fascism. Between 1950 and 2016, one-party dictatorships made up 57% of authoritarian regimes in the world,[26] and one-party dictatorships have continued to expand more quickly than other forms of dictatorship in the latter half of the 20th century. Power is obtained and passed on through family connections. [73], Dictatorships in Latin America persisted into the 20th century, and further military coups established new regimes, often in the name of nationalism. The first distinction made is whether a democracy's government is responsible to the legislature. Hybrid dictatorships blend elements of the other four types. Among the 10 dictatorship countries profiled, poverty is endemic. Democracy is broadly understood to mean 'rule by the people'. This article focuses on the five communist countries that are still adherent to Marxism-Leninism. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. [8]:456, The second distinction made is whether the head of state is popularly elected for a fixed term. These movements were a response to what they perceived as decadence and societal decay due to the changing social norms and race relations brought about by liberalism. Latin America's new generation of dictators. [75] Lenin was followed by Joseph Stalin in 1924, who consolidated total power and implemented totalitarian rule by 1929. The phrase "fixed term" indicates the once the head of state is chosen, they serve a known and a limited number of years before another election is held, and they cannot be removed from the office in the meantime via a vote of no confidence. A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. Elections also support the legitimacy of a dictatorship by presenting the image of a democracy, establishing plausible deniability of its status as a dictatorship for both the populace and foreign governments. Qatar - Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani Russia - Vladimir Putin, President of Russia Rwanda - Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda Saudi Arabia - King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz, King of Saudi Arabia Somalia - Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, President of Somalia South Sudan - Salva Kiir Mayardit, President * Venezuela - Nicolas Maduro * Mauritania - Mohamed Ould Abdulaziz * Algeria - Abdelaziz Bouteflika * Tunisia - Beji Caid Essebesi * Chad - Idriss Deby * Sudan - Omar al-Bashir * Cameroon - Paul Biy. They are not even defined terms of art within political science. Politics in a dictatorship are controlled by the dictator and facilitated through an inner circle of elites that include advisers, generals, and other high-ranking officials. Hybrid dictatorships: What it's like to live under a Dictatorship. Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) Pol Pot (1925-1998) Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) Saddam Hussein (1937-2006) Idi Amin (1952-2003) Is Venezuela a dictatorship? [48], An absolute monarchy is a monarchy in which the monarch rules without legal limitations. 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. [1]:70. Photo: Lars Klove. [134] Revolution takes place when the opposition group grows large enough that elites in the regime cannot suppress it or choose not to. In fact, most dictators adopt common appellations such as "President" or "Prime Minister", so they must be identified via their actions and policies rather than their title. [68] The Spanish American wars of independence took place in the early-19th century, creating many new Latin American governments. [72] The societal upheaval caused by World War I and the unstable peace it produced further contributed to instability that benefited extremist movements and rallied support for their causes. Binary measure of democracy and dictatorship, Six-fold regime classification scheme and its rules, Comparison with other democracy-measuring data sets, Studies in Comparative International Development, "Minimalist Conception of Democracy: A Defense", Przeworski, Alvarez, Cheibub, and Limongi: Democracy and development, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Democracy-Dictatorship_Index&oldid=1141715357, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from February 2023, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from January 2023, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. He took control of the nation in 1973 after leading a coup that deposed elected leftist leader Salvador Allende. 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 number of countries ruled by military dictatorships began to fall sharply after the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. This means that the ruler or party has complete control. Early African dictatorships were primarily personalist socialist dictatorships, in which a single socialist would take power instead of a ruling party. 1 Norway 2 Iceland 3 Sweden 4 New Zealand 5 Denmark =6 Canada =6 Ireland 8 Australia =9 Switzerland =9 Finland Human habitation in Afghanistan dates back to the Middle Paleolithic Era, and the country's strategic location along the Silk Road connected it to the cultures of the Middle East and other parts of Asia. [2] The inner circle's support is necessary for a dictator's orders to be carried out, causing elites to serve as a check on the dictator's power. In some cases, nations may have multiple ruling bodies or government types, meaning they're not exclusively countries that are governed by dictatorships. Based on a "minimalist" theory of democracy, the index relies on rules regarding the existence of competitive elections. Examples might include King Cyrus the Great of Persia, who is thought to have created the first declaration of human rights, the Biblical King Solomon, Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yue. The power structures of dictatorships vary, and different definitions of dictatorship consider different elements of this structure. Current Dictators Kim Jong-un Kim Jong-un is North Korea's current dictator and the third generation Kim to rule the country, following the death of his father Kim Jong-il in 2011. Therefore, it is impossible to know if the regime is a democracy or a dictatorship, so DD Index considers them dictatorships until an alternation in power occurs. in Turkey, Kamal Pasha, established his dictatorship in 1921 and he remained in power till his death in 1938. [15] If the dictator has not seized power through a political party, then a party may be formed as a mechanism to reward supporters and to concentrate power in the hands of political allies instead of militant allies. 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. (Dictator of Italy and Principal Founder of Fascism Who Was Prime Minister of Italy from 1922 to 1943.) Its purpose is to collect information, mobilize society, and induce compliance with the dictatorships directives. [146], In a dictatorship, violence is used to coerce or repress all opposition to the dictator's rule, and the strength of a dictatorship depends on its use of violence. [116] Dictatorships in the Middle East are primarily guided by Islamic nationalism. Factions or divisions among the elites will mitigate their ability to bargain with the dictator, resulting in the dictator having more unrestrained power. Dictatorships have shallow levels of freedom. [according to whom? On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [13] After power is seized, the group must determine what positions its members will hold in the new government and how this government will operate, sometimes resulting in disagreements that split the group. Terrible things have been done in the name of socialism and here are some of the most rigorous dictators. There's no room for opposition or . The Freedom in the World report evaluates the state of freedom in 195 countries and 14 territories, assigning a score between 0 and 4 in a series of 25 indicators to give a final score of 100. Giving ultimate power and control to just one person is not ideal, as it can lead to future unrest and problems. [133] A dictator may negotiate the end of a regime if it has lost legitimacy or if a violent removal seems likely. [87], The decolonisation of Africa prompted the creation of new governments, many of which became dictatorships in the 1960s and 1970s. China - Communist Regime 4. [82], Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party created a second fascist dictatorship in Germany in 1933,[83] obtaining absolute power through a combination of electoral victory, violence, and emergency powers. Many dictatorships are also characterized by corruption, nepotism, and a cult of personality around the leader. [23] Military coups do not necessarily result in military dictatorships, as power may then be passed to an individual or the military may allow democratic elections to take place. [97], The Middle East was decolonized during the Cold War, and many nationalist movements gained strength post-independence. [41], Personalist dictatorships fit the exact classic stereotype of authoritarian rule. Given the degree of censorship and control China's government leverages over its citizens, most political experts would call it a dictatorship. [47] Personalist dictatorships also experience growth differently, as they often lack the institutions or qualified leadership to sustain an economy. Single-party dictatorships were most common during the Cold War, with dominant-party dictatorships becoming more common after the fall of the Soviet Union. This instability in turn required rulers to become increasingly authoritarian to stay in power, further propagating dictatorship in Africa. Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine are the only democratic nations in the region, with Israel being the only nation in this region that affords broad political liberties to its citizens. Imelda Marcos. "[6], For a regime to be considered as a democracy by the DD scheme, it must meet the requirement of four rules below:[1]:69[3], Some regimes may meet the first three rules, but lack an alternation in power in its historical past; these regimes are classified as dictatorships because of cases where the incumbent only allows elections as long as they keep winning, and would refuse to step down if they lost. [5] This is particularly true when the inner circle is made up of military officers that have the resources to carry out a military coup. In practice, it is often defined as people choosing their leaders in free and fair elections. Dictatorship Countries And Their Leaders | Countries Ruled by Dictators | 2019 Rankings On Time 1.62K subscribers 95K views 3 years ago Dictatorship Countries And Their Leaders | Countries Ruled. The leaders of dictatorships are not outwardly identified as dictators when other people are addressing them. Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. [135] Negotiated removals are more likely to end in democracy, while removals by force are more likely to result in a new dictatorial regime. [85] After being defeated in World War II, the far-right dictatorships of Europe collapsed, with the exceptions of Spain and Portugal. The relations between the countries were strained by Soviet attempts to influence Yugoslavia, leading to the TitoStalin split in 1948. [127], Indoctrination is the inculcation of citizens on specific values and ideas beneficial to the dictatorships needs and desires. Reading Time: 4 minutes. Dictatorships arise through violence or non-violent means, but they almost always result in the loss of liberties, corruption, and human rights abuses. First is that an autocracy nearly always focuses power in a single individual person, whereas dictatorshipssingle-party dictatorships in particularsometimes spread the power throughout a small group of people (say, the leaders of the dictator's political party). In the United Kingdom, for example, the chief executive is the prime minister, and the ministers are the heads of the executive departments, which together compose the government. 10. [16], Most dictatorships are formed through military means or through a political party. Through the ages, Algeria, officially People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in North Africa on the Mediterranean coast. These dictators may view themselves as impartial in their oversight of a country due to their nonpartisan status, and they may view themselves as "guardians of the state". [114] The countries of Central Asia did not liberalize after the fall of the Soviet Union, instead forming as dictatorships led by former elites of the Communist Party and then later by successive dictators. the dictatorship of the proletariat had to be preserved in the socialist countries to assure that the reeducated minds of the workers already lucky enough to live under socialism were not re-infected by capitalist ideas coming in from outside the people's collectivist . Dictatorships can be formed by a military coup that overthrows the previous government through force or by a self-coup in which elected leaders make their rule permanent. Nations with a legacy of military dictatorship (s) In Africa Algeria (1965-1994) Burkina Faso (1966-1991) Burundi (1966-1993) Central African Republic (1966-1993) Chad (1975-1991) Congo-Brazzaville (1968-1992) Equatorial Guinea (1968-1982) Ethiopia (1974-1991) Gambia, The (1994-1997) Guinea (1984-1991) Ghana (1966-1969; 1972-1979; 1981-1993) 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. [98], During World War II, many countries of Central and Eastern Europe had been occupied by the Soviet Union. Leaders of these dictatorships often place those loyal to them in positions of power (qualified or not), and foster cults of personality to sway public opinion to their side. This page was last edited on 4 March 2023, at 02:19. But for today, these are the world's dictatorships. He responded by ordering the confiscation of food, impossible farming yield quotas, banning private farming for substenance, and introducing internal passports and residency permits, which prevented villagers from seeking food elsewhere. 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. It was initially aligned with Yugoslavia, but its alignment shifted throughout the Cold War between Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, and China. The economic focus of a dictatorship often depends on the strength of the opposition, as a weaker opposition allows a dictator to extract additional wealth from the economy through corruption.[125]. But for today, these are the world's dictatorships. [104] A one-party communist dictatorship was formed in Cuba when a US-backed dictatorship was overthrown in the Cuban Revolution, creating the only Soviet-backed dictatorship in the western hemisphere. Infamous dictators of the world are often thought of as tyrants - leaders who rule with iron fists, cruelty, unflinching authority, and a lack of opposition. In the former, for example, the President must appoint as Prime Minister the leader of the largest party in parliament, who has three days to gain the confidence of a majority thereof. Some of the principal drivers of indoctrination are mass education policies, propaganda, and censorship. If it is not responsible, it is a presidential democracy. Adolf Hitler: 14 most cruel dictators Benito Mussolini: 14 most cruel dictators Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924): 14 most cruel dictators Joseph Stalin: 14 most cruel dictators Mao Zedong or Mao or Mao Tse Tung: 14 most cruel dictators Muammar Gaddafi: 14 most cruel dictators Idi Amin (1920-2003): 14 most cruel dictators Rwanda - 1994 to present - Paul Kagame. [8]:456. In some cases, nations may have multiple ruling bodies or government types, meaning they're not exclusively countries that are governed by dictatorships. Semi-competitive elections also have the effect of incentivizing members of the ruling party to provide better treatment of citizens so they will be chosen as party nominees due to their popularity. This may sound like a contradiction of terms to many people. Several dictatorships have persisted into the 21st century, particularly in Africa and Asia. They are ruled by one-party or military dictatorships, religious hierarchies, or autocrats. Current Heads of State & Dictators - Planet Rulers, President Faustin Archange Touadera of the, President Flix Tshilombo Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, President Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of the Congo, President Teodoro Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, President Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan of.