Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. ", "The Cromwellian Protectorate: A Military Dictatorship? 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. [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. Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. 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". While royal rule, as legitimized by blood descent, had almost vanished as an effective principle of government in the modern world, monocracya term that comprehends the rule of non-Western royal absolutists, of generals and strongmen in Latin America and Asia, of a number of leaders in postcolonial Africa, and of the totalitarian heads of communist statesstill flourished. The dictator has absolute power. As the dictatorship becomes more established, it moves away from violence by resorting to the use of other coercive measures, such as restricting people's access to information and tracking the political opposition. The Soviet Union occupied nationalist dictatorships in the east and replaced them with communist dictatorships, while others established liberal democratic governments in the Western Bloc. Although the term oligarchy is rarely used to refer to contemporary political systems, the phenomenon of irresponsible rule by small groups has not vanished from the world. [117] Generally, two research approaches exist: the minimalist approach, which focuses on whether a country has continued elections that are competitive, and the substantive approach, which expands the concept of democracy to include human rights, freedom of the press, and the rule of law. Dictators use intimidation, terror, and the suppression of fundamental civil liberties. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. 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. Alfred says, The proclamation of emergency rule, for example, was the beginning of the dictatorships of Hitler in Germany, Benito Mussolini in Italy, Kemal Atatrk in Turkey, Jzef Pisudki in Poland, and Antnio de Oliveira Salazar in Portugal. In the contemporary world, in some countries that have not experienced the full impact of industrialization, governing elites are still often recruited from a ruling classa stratum of society that monopolizes the chief social and economic functions in the system. [25], One-party dictatorships are governments in which a single political party dominates politics. An authoritarian military dictatorship ruled Chile for seventeen years, between 11 September 1973 and 11 March 1990. In other democracies, however, constitutional arrangements have survived quite lengthy periods of crisis government. Learn the definition of a dictatorship and its main characteristics. [80] Italian dictator Benito Mussolini seized power in 1922, and began implementing reforms in 1925 to create the first fascist dictatorship. [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. The result is that such regimes have no internal checks and balances, and are thus unrestrained when exerting repression on their people, making radical shifts in foreign policy, or starting wars with other countries. The use of the term dictatorship originated in the Roman Republic. Democracy Features & Examples | What is a Democratic Country? Often, too, 20th-century dictators in Latin America allied themselves with a particular social class, attempting either to maintain the interests of established economic groupings or to press social reforms. The modern caudillo proved to be less a provincial leader than a national one. Ruler often rises to power out of conflict, Dictators control all branches of government and the media, Intimidation, murder, imprisonment, violence and other human rights abuses are used to control the population, A cult of personality makes the ruler appear divine, Consider the factors that make a country a dictatorship, Describe the quality of life under a dictator's rule. I feel like its a lifeline. In personalist dictatorships, the elite corps are usually made up of close friends or family members of the dictator, who typically handpicks these individuals to serve their posts. However, his presidency came under dispute in 2019. [38] Due to the lack of accountability and the smaller group of elites, personalist dictatorships are more prone to corruption than other forms of dictatorship,[39] and they are more repressive than other forms of dictatorship. Dictatorship or Totalitarianism is a situation where a single person or political party rules the entire country. [108], Dictatorship in Europe largely ended after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the liberalization of most communist states. While the term has been used several times throughout history, most common usage of the term is in relation to different types of dictatorships that existed in the 20th and 21st centuries. By contrast, dictators take power by force or by misleading the people. In which one may be a senior politician or any group owns all the authority for ruling over the country. She has a Master's degree in History. Dictators usually resort to force or fraud to gain despotic political power, which they maintain through the use of intimidation, terror, and the suppression of basic civil liberties. [103], Military dictatorships remained prominent in Latin America during the Cold War, though the number of coups declined starting in the 1980s. [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. A dictator is an individual who forms a government where they make decisions without effective constitutional limitations. These nationalist movements supported non-alignment, keeping most Middle Eastern dictatorships out of the American and Soviet spheres of influence. [3] Elites must also compete to wield more power than one another, but the amount of power held by elites also depends on their unity. Exceptions to the pattern of poverty in dictatorships include oil-rich Middle Eastern dictatorships and the East Asian Tigers during their periods of dictatorship. [143], Terrorism is less common in dictatorships. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. A dictator that has concentrated significant power is more likely to be exiled, imprisoned, or killed after ouster, and accordingly they are more likely to refuse negotiation and cling to power. A personalist dictator will manage these appointees by segmenting the government so that they cannot collaborate. Marxist one-party states are sometimes distinguished from other one-party states, but they function similarly. Parties formed after the seizure of power often have little influence and only exist to serve the dictator. See examples of ancient and modern dictatorships. But in a modern-day dictatorship government, one person (or a small group of individuals) has complete control over the government regardless of whether there is a state of emergency or not. Totalitarianism is the most extreme form of authoritarianism and is considered an oppressive method of ruling a nation. The 20th century also saw the rise of personalist dictatorships in Africa and military dictatorships in Latin America, both of which became prominent in the 1960s and 1970s. The predominance of violent force in military training manifests in an acceptance of violence as a political tool and the ability to organize violence on a large scale. lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. Unlike in the United States and other similar nations, the people living in a dictatorship have no rights of free speech, freedom of religion, a free press or even the right to hold an opinion in opposition to the ruler and ruling party. - Definition, Qualities & Characteristics, Psychological Research & Experimental Design, All Teacher Certification Test Prep Courses, Dictatorship Examples and Characteristics, Introduction to Management: Help & Review, Leadership: Leaders & Their Role in Organizations, Leadership Orientation: Task-Oriented & People-Oriented, The Blake Mouton Managerial Grid: Five Leadership Styles, The Path-Goal Theory and Leadership Styles, Fiedler's Contingency Theory & a Leader's Situational Control, Hersey-Blanchard's Model of Situational Leadership, What is a Dictatorship? Korea experienced military dictatorships under the rule of Yeon Gaesomun in the 7th century[58] and under the rule of the Goryeo military regime in the 12th and 13th centuries. [29][30] The use of ruling parties also provides more legitimacy to its leadership and elites than other forms of dictatorship[31] and facilitates a peaceful transfer of power at the end of a dictator's rule. Freedom House, the Polity data series, and the Democracy-Dictatorship Index are three of the most used data series by political scientists. [33] A ruling party in a one-party dictatorship may rule under any ideology or it may have no guiding ideology. [97], The Middle East was decolonized during the Cold War, and many nationalist movements gained strength post-independence. Dictatorships that fail to repress the opposition are susceptible to collapse through a coup or a revolution. More complex economies require additional cooperation between the dictator and other groups. While the People's Republic of China was initially aligned with the Soviet Union, relations between the two countries deteriorated as the Soviet Union underwent de-Stalinization in the late-1950s. Updates? [68] The Spanish American wars of independence took place in the early-19th century, creating many new Latin American governments. [47] Personalist dictatorships also experience growth differently, as they often lack the institutions or qualified leadership to sustain an economy. Totalitarianism is a type of governmental system in which the government exerts a domineering level of control over the population. A dictatorship is a form of government characterized by the rule of one person or a small group of people who have no checks and balances on their power. They are not held accountable for their actions and are free to do as they please, even limiting citizens' freedom and rights. [137] Dictatorships may influence the results of an election through electoral fraud, intimidation or bribing of candidates and voters, use of state resources such as media control, manipulation of electoral laws, restricting who may run as a candidate, or disenfranchising demographics that may oppose the dictatorship. [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. The people living in dictatorships are often subjected to human rights abuses and severe limits to their personal freedom. These self-proclaimed dictators used private armies to establish control over territories. The dictatorship was established after the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende was overthrown in a coup d'tat backed by the United States on 11 September 1973. Industrialization produces new, differentiated elites that replace the small leadership groupings that once controlled social, economic, and political power in the society. Similarly, although the 1958 constitution of the Fifth Republic of France contained far-reaching emergency powers conferred on the presidentwhen the institutions of the Republic, the independence of the nation, the integrity of its territory or the fulfillment of its international obligations are threatened with immediate and grave danger, and when the regular functioning of the constitutional authority is interruptedtheir implicit threat to the constitutional order has not been realized. Dictators use intimidation, terror, and the suppression of basic civil liberties. The dictatorship is opposed to the democratic system of government. Dictators use psychological manipulation, imprisonment, torture and murder to intimidate the citizens into complete obedience. Delivered to your inbox! Factions or divisions among the elites will mitigate their ability to bargain with the dictator, resulting in the dictator having more unrestrained power. Ecclesiastical - a government administrated by a church. Send us feedback about these examples. 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.
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