Dictator

Adolf Hitler (right), dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and Benito Mussolini (left), dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1945.[upper-alpha 1]

A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A state which is ruled by a dictator is called a dictatorship. The word originated as the title of a magistrate in the Roman Republic appointed by the Senate to rule the republic in times of emergency (see Roman dictator and justitium).[2]

Like the term "tyrant" (which was originally a respectable Ancient Greek title), and to a lesser degree "autocrat", "dictator" came to be used almost exclusively as a non-titular term for oppressive, even abusive rule, yet it had rare modern titular use.

In modern usage, the term "dictator" is generally used to describe a leader who holds and/or abuses an extraordinary amount of personal power. Dictatorships are often characterised by some of the following traits: suspension of elections and civil liberties; proclamation of a state of emergency; rule by decree; repression of political opponents without abiding by the rule of law procedures; these include one-party state, and cult of personality.[3][4]

The term "dictator" is comparable to  but not synonymous with  the ancient concept of a tyrant; initially "tyrant", like "dictator", did not carry negative connotations. A wide variety of leaders coming to power in a number of different kinds of regimes, such as military juntas, one-party states and civilian governments under a personal rule, have been described as dictators. They, in a sense, may hold left or right-wing views, or they may be apolitical.

Etymology

Julius Caesar, dictator of Rome.

Originally an emergency legal appointment in the Roman Republic, the term "Dictator" did not have the negative meaning it has now. A Dictator was a magistrate given sole power for a limited duration. At the end of the term, the Dictator's power was returned to normal Consular rule whereupon a dictator provided accountability, though not all dictators accepted a return to power sharing.

The term started to get its modern negative meaning with Cornelius Sulla's ascension to the dictatorship following Sulla's second civil war, making himself the first Dictator in Rome in more than a century (during which the office was ostensibly abolished) as well as de facto eliminating the time limit and need of senatorial acclamation. He avoided a major constitutional crisis by resigning the office after about one year, dying a few years later. Julius Caesar followed Sulla's example in 49 BC and in February 44 BC was proclaimed Dictator perpetuo, "Dictator in perpetuity", officially doing away with any limitations on his power, which he kept until his assassination the following month.

Following Julius' assassination, his heir Augustus was offered the title of dictator, but he declined it. Later successors also declined the title of dictator, and usage of the title soon diminished among Roman rulers.

Modern era

Country ratings from Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2017 survey, concerning the state of world freedom in 2016.[5]
  Free (86)   Partly Free (59)   Not Free (50)
Democracy Index by the UK based magazine The Economist, 2017. Countries marked in different shades of red of are considered undemocratic, with many being dictatorships.[6]

As late as the second half of the 19th century, the term dictator had occasional positive implications. For example, when creating a provisional executive in Sicily during the Expedition of the Thousand in 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi officially assumed the title of "Dictator" (see Dictatorship of Garibaldi). Shortly afterwards, during the 1863 January Uprising in Poland, "Dictator" was also the official title of four leaders, the first being Ludwik Mierosławski.

Past that time, however, the term dictator assumed an invariably negative connotation. In popular usage, a dictatorship is often associated with brutality and oppression. As a result, it is often also used as a term of abuse against political opponents. The term has also come to be associated with megalomania. Many dictators create a cult of personality around themselves and they have also come to grant themselves increasingly grandiloquent titles and honours. For instance, Idi Amin Dada, who had been a British army lieutenant prior to Uganda's independence from Britain in October 1962, subsequently styled himself "His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor[A] Idi Amin Dada, VC,[B] DSO, MC, Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular".[7] In the movie The Great Dictator (1940), Charlie Chaplin satirized not only Adolf Hitler but the institution of dictatorship itself.

The association between a dictator and the military is a common one; many dictators take great pains to emphasize their connections with the military and they often wear military uniforms. In some cases, this is perfectly legitimate; Francisco Franco was a lieutenant general in the Spanish Army before he became Chief of State of Spain; Manuel Noriega was officially commander of the Panamanian Defense Forces. In other cases, the association is mere pretense.

Some dictators have been masters of crowd manipulation, such as Mussolini and Hitler. Others were more prosaic speakers, such as Stalin and Franco. Typically the dictator's people seize control of all media, censor or destroy the opposition, and give strong doses of propaganda daily, often built around a cult of personality.[8]

Modern usage in formal titles

Giuseppe Garibaldi proclaimed himself dictator of Sicily (1860)

Because of its negative associations, modern leaders very rarely (if ever) use the term dictator in their formal titles. In the 19th century, however, its official usage was more common:

Russia during the Civil War

Human rights abuses

Mao Zedong (left), dictator of China from 1949 to 1976, and Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953

Under the Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, government policy was enforced by extrajudicial killings, secret police (originally known as the Cheka) and the notorious Gulag system of concentration camps. Most Gulag inmates were not political prisoners, although significant numbers of political prisoners could be found in the camps at any one time. Data collected from Soviet archives gives the death toll from Gulags at 1,053,829.[13] Other human rights abuses by the Soviet state included human experimentation, the use of psychiatry as a political weapon and the denial of freedoms of religion, assembly, speech and association.

Pol Pot became dictator of Cambodia in 1975. In all, an estimated 1.7 million people (out of a population of 7 million) died due to the policies of his four-year dictatorship.[14] As a result, Pol Pot is sometimes described as "the Hitler of Cambodia" and "a genocidal tyrant".[15]

Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. According to the BBC, Obiang Nguema "has been described by rights organisations as one Africa's most brutal dictators."[16]

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudan's military dictator Omar al-Bashir over alleged war crimes in Darfur.[17]

In game theory

In social choice theory, the notion of a dictator is formally defined as a person who can achieve any feasible social outcome he/she wishes. The formal definition yields an interesting distinction between two different types of dictators.

  • The strong dictator has, for any social goal he/she has in mind (e.g. raise taxes, having someone killed, etc.), a definite way of achieving that goal. This can be seen as having explicit absolute power, like Sulla.
  • The weak dictator has, for any social goal he/she has in mind, and for any political scenario, a course of action that would bring about the desired goal. For the weak dictator, it is usually not enough to "give their orders", rather he/she has to manipulate the political scene appropriately. This means that the weak dictator might actually be lurking in the shadows, working within a political setup that seems to be non-dictatorial. An example of such a figure is Lorenzo the Magnificent, who controlled Renaissance Florence.

Note that these definitions disregard some alleged dictators who are not interested in the actual achieving of social goals, as much as in propaganda and controlling public opinion. Monarchs and military dictators are also excluded from these definitions, because their rule relies on the consent of other political powers (the nobility or the army).

See also

References

Notes

  1. Mussolini and his followers consolidated their power through a series of laws that transformed the nation into a one-party dictatorship. Within five years, Mussolini had established dictatorial authority by both legal and extraordinary means and aspired to create a totalitarian state. Mussolini remained in power until he was deposed by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1943, but a few months later he became the leader of the Italian Social Republic, a German client regime in northern Italy – Mussolini held this post until his death in 1945.[1]

Citations

  1. Luisa Quartermaine (2000). Mussolini's Last Republic: Propaganda and Politics in the Italian Social Republic (R.S.I.) 1943–45. Intellect Books. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-902454-08-5.
  2. "dictator – Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2008-08-01.
  3. Papaioannou, Kostadis; vanZanden, Jan Luiten (2015). "The Dictator Effect: How long years in office affect economic development". Journal of Institutional Economics. 11 (1). doi:10.1017/S1744137414000356.
  4. Olson, Mancur (1993). "Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development". American Political Science Review. 87 (3).
  5. Freedom in The World 2017 - Populists and Autocrats: The Dual Threat to Global Democracy by Freedom House, January 31, 2017
  6. "Democracy Index 2017 - Economist Intelligence Unit" (PDF). EIU.com. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  7. Keatley, Patrick (18 August 2003). "Obituary: Idi Amin". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2008-03-18.
  8. Fritz Morstein Marx, et al. Propaganda and Dictatorship (Princeton UP, 1936). excerpt
  9. "Daniele Manin Facts". Biography. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
  10. "The First Philippine Republic". National Historical Commission. 7 September 2012. Retrieved 26 May 2018. On June 20, Aguinaldo issued a decree organizing the judiciary, and on June 23, again upon Mabini’s advice, major changes were promulgated and implemented: change of government from Dictatorial to Revolutionary; change of the Executive title from Dictator to President
  11. Philippine Legislature:100 Years, Cesar Pobre
  12. Dune, Eduard Martynovich; Koenker, Diane; Smith, S. A. (April 1993). Notes of a Red Guard. Urbana Illinois, U.S.A.: University of Illinois Press. p. 101. ISBN 978-0252062773. ISBN 0252062779.
  13. "Gulag Prisoner Population Statistics from 1934 to 1953." Wasatch.edu. Wasatch, n.d. Web. 16 July 2016: "According to a 1993 study of Soviet archival data, a total of 1,053,829 people died in the Gulag from 1934 to 1953. However, taking into account that it was common practice to release prisoners who were either suffering from incurable diseases or on the point of death, the actual Gulag death toll was somewhat higher, amounting to 1,258,537 in 1934-53, or 1.6 million deaths during the whole period from 1929 to 1953.."
  14. ""Top 15 Toppled Dictators". Time. 20 October 2011. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  15. William Branigin, Architect of Genocide Was Unrepentant to the End The Washington Post, April 17, 1998
  16. "Equatorial Guinea country profile". BBC News. 8 May 2018.
  17. "Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir faces war crimes charges". The Daily Telegraph. July 14, 2008.
  18. "Idi Amin: a byword for brutality". News24. 2003-07-21. Archived from the original on 2008-06-05. Retrieved 2007-12-02.
  19. Lloyd, Lorna (2007) p.239

Bibliography

  • Bunce & Wolchik, Valerie, Sharon L. (2012). Socialism Vanquished, Socialism Challenged: Eastern Europe and China, 1989-2009. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  • Issac, Jeffrey C. (2000). Between Past and Future: The Revolutions of 1989 and Their Aftermath. Central European University Press. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  • Pavlowitch, Stevan K. (2002). Serbia: The History of an Idea. New York, NY: New York University Press. p. 128. ISBN 0-8147-6708-7.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.