Dictator#Modern usage in formal titles

{{Short description|Political leader who possesses absolute power}}

File:Historical dictators.jpg of the Soviet Union; Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany; Augusto Pinochet of Chile; Mao Zedong of China; Benito Mussolini of Italy; and Kim Il Sung of North Korea.]]

File:Retrato de Julio César (26724093101) (cropped).jpg outmaneuvered his opponents in ancient Rome to install himself as dictator for life.]]

A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a polity.{{Cite journal |date=July 2001 |title=Lessons in On-Line Reference PublishingMerriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Merriam-WebsterMerriam-Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus. Merriam-WebsterMerriam-Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia. Merriam-Webster |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/603287 |journal=The Library Quarterly |volume=71 |issue=3 |pages=392–399 |doi=10.1086/603287 |s2cid=148183387 |issn=0024-2519|url-access=subscription }} The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in times of emergency. Like the terms "tyrant" and "autocrat", dictator came to be used almost exclusively as a non-titular term for oppressive rule. In modern usage the term dictator is generally used to describe a leader who holds or abuses an extraordinary amount of personal power.

Dictatorships are often characterised by some of the following: suspension of elections and civil liberties; proclamation of a state of emergency; rule by decree; repression of political opponents; not abiding by the procedures of the rule of law; and the existence of a cult of personality centered on the leader. Dictatorships are often one-party or dominant-party states.{{Cite journal|last=Papaioannou|first=Kostadis|date=2015|title=The Dictator Effect: How long years in office affect economic development|journal=Journal of Institutional Economics|volume=11|issue=1|pages=111–139|doi=10.1017/S1744137414000356|author2=vanZanden, Jan Luiten|hdl=1874/329292 |s2cid=154309029|hdl-access=free}}{{Cite journal|title=Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development|last=Olson|first=Mancur|date=1993|journal=American Political Science Review|volume=87|issue=3|pages=567–576|doi=10.2307/2938736|jstor=2938736|s2cid=145312307 }} A wide variety of leaders coming to power in different kinds of regimes, such as one-party or dominant-party states and civilian governments under a personal rule, have been described as dictators.

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Etymology

The word dictator comes from the Latin word dictātor, agent noun from dictare (say repeatedly, assert, order).{{Cite web |title=Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, dicto |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=dicto |access-date=2024-01-17 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}{{Cite web |title=Oxford English Dictionary |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/52304?p=emailAOE6bjQCOi1ZQ&d=52304}} A dictator was a Roman magistrate given sole power for a limited duration. Originally an emergency legal appointment in the Roman Republic and the Etruscan culture, the term dictator did not have the negative meaning it has now.{{Cite book|last=Le Glay, Marcel.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/760889060|title=A history of Rome|date=2009|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|isbn=978-1-4051-8327-7|oclc=760889060|access-date=2020-05-21|archive-date=2020-07-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200725132827/http://worldcat.org/oclc/760889060|url-status=live}} It started to get its modern negative meaning with Cornelius Sulla's ascension to the dictatorship following Sulla's 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.{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Mark B. |title=Dictator: the evolution of the Roman dictatorship |date=2021 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |isbn=9780472132669 |page=325 }}

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 {{lang|la|Dictator perpetuo}}, "Dictator in perpetuity", officially doing away with any limitations on his power, which he kept until his assassination the following month. Following Caesar's 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.{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Mark B. |title=Dictator: the evolution of the Roman dictatorship |date=2021 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |isbn=9780472132669 |page=330 }}

Modern era

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| image1 = 2017 Freedom House world map.png

| image2 = EIU Democracy Index 2017.svg

| caption1 = Country ratings for 2016 from Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2017[https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/FH_FIW_2017_Report_Final.pdf Freedom in The World 2017 – Populists and Autocrats: The Dual Threat to Global Democracy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170727054703/https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/FH_FIW_2017_Report_Final.pdf |date=2017-07-27 }} by Freedom House, January 31, 2017
{{legend inline|#16A983|Free (86)}} {{legend inline|#E5B63B|Partly Free (59)}} {{legend inline|#6973A5|Not Free (50)}}

| caption2 = 2017 Democracy Index by The Economist in which countries marked in different shades of red are considered undemocratic, with many being dictatorships{{cite web|url=http://pages.eiu.com/rs/753-RIQ-438/images/Democracy_Index_2017.pdf?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWkRKbU1HWmxNVEUwTW1FdyIsInQiOiJPdlltVFV0blFRQzZNVERCZHhVeitZRElmUGplOHh3NWs1d2wzVzdRS1JvNU1kVmUxQVRESU9LbEVSOVwvR1F4aG1PV1NlS0ZZcng4NzBcLzVNZ09JOUxiZU5TTEVPekVHayttOTRqQkQ5TkNzWGNtRlowQTZ0UzlUK0pDdm9PVGlcLyJ9|title=Democracy Index 2017 – Economist Intelligence Unit|website=EIU.com|access-date=17 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180218214151/http://pages.eiu.com/rs/753-RIQ-438/images/Democracy_Index_2017.pdf?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWkRKbU1HWmxNVEUwTW1FdyIsInQiOiJPdlltVFV0blFRQzZNVERCZHhVeitZRElmUGplOHh3NWs1d2wzVzdRS1JvNU1kVmUxQVRESU9LbEVSOVwvR1F4aG1PV1NlS0ZZcng4NzBcLzVNZ09JOUxiZU5TTEVPekVHayttOTRqQkQ5TkNzWGNtRlowQTZ0UzlUK0pDdm9PVGlcLyJ9|archive-date=18 February 2018|url-status=dead}}

}}

As late as the second half of the 19th century, the term dictator had occasional positive implications. For example, during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the national leader Lajos Kossuth was often referred to as dictator, without any negative connotations, by his supporters and detractors alike, although his official title was that of regent-president.{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lajos-Kossuth|title=Lajos Kossuth|first=Carlile Aylmer|last=Macartney|publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica|date=September 15, 2020|access-date=October 31, 2020|archive-date=November 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101191955/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lajos-Kossuth|url-status=live}} 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.

File:Teodoro Obiang.png of Equatorial Guinea is Africa's longest serving dictator."[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/teodoro-obiang-nguema-mbasogo-equatorial-guinea-french-corruption-trial-a7238501.html The brutal central African dictator whose playboy son faces French corruption trial]". The Independent. 12 September 2016."[http://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2012/02/09/the-five-worst-leaders-in-africa/ The Five Worst Leaders In Africa]". Forbes. 9 February 2012.]]

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{{Ref label|Doctorate|A|}} Idi Amin Dada, VC,{{Ref label|VC|B|}} DSO, MC, Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular".{{cite news |last=Keatley |first=Patrick |title=Obituary: Idi Amin |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/aug/18/guardianobituaries |work=The Guardian |date=18 August 2003 |access-date=2008-03-18 |location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131205070235/http://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/aug/18/guardianobituaries |archive-date=2013-12-05 |url-status=live }} In the movie The Great Dictator (1940), Charlie Chaplin satirized not only Adolf Hitler but the institution of dictatorship itself.

= Characteristics =

== Benevolent dictatorship ==

A benevolent dictatorship refers to a government in which an authoritarian leader exercises absolute political power over the state but is perceived to do so with regard for the benefit of the population as a whole, standing in contrast to the decidedly malevolent stereotype of a dictator. A benevolent dictator may allow for some civil liberties or democratic decision-making to exist, such as through public referendums or elected representatives with limited power, and often makes preparations for a transition to genuine democracy during or after their term. The label has been applied to leaders such as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk of Turkey (1923–38),{{Cite web |title=Atatürk, Ghazi Mustapha Kemal (1881–1938) {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/international/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/ataturk-ghazi-mustapha-kemal-1881-1938 |access-date=2023-09-18 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}} Josip Broz Tito of SFR Yugoslavia (1953–80),{{cite book |last1=Shapiro |first1=Susan |last2=Shapiro |first2=Ronald |title=The Curtain Rises: Oral Histories of the Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe |publisher=McFarland |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7864-1672-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oCqWFQ1WKlkC&pg=PA180 |ref=Shapiro_2004 |access-date=2019-01-19 |archive-date=2021-05-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512060314/https://books.google.com/books?id=oCqWFQ1WKlkC&pg=PA180 |url-status=live }}
"...All Yugoslavs had educational opportunities, jobs, food, and housing regardless of nationality. Tito, seen by most as a benevolent dictator, brought peaceful co-existence to the Balkan region, a region historically synonymous with factionalism." and Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore (1959–90).{{Cite news |title=What Singapore can teach us |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-singapore-can-teach-us/2012/05/02/gIQAlQEGwT_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=2012-05-02 |access-date=2015-11-25 |issn=0190-8286 |first=Matt |last=Miller |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311045232/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-singapore-can-teach-us/2012/05/02/gIQAlQEGwT_story.html |archive-date=2016-03-11 |url-status=live }}

== Military roles ==

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; for instance, Francisco Franco was a general in the Spanish Army before he became Chief of State of Spain,{{Cite book|ref=Thomas|first=Hugh|author-link=Hugh Thomas, Baron Thomas of Swynnerton|last=Thomas|year=1977|title=The Spanish Civil War|isbn=978-0-06-014278-0|pages=421–424|publisher=Harper & Row }} and Manuel Noriega was officially commander of the Panamanian Defense Forces. In other cases, the association is mere pretense.

== Crowd manipulation ==

Some dictators have been masters of crowd manipulation, such as Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. Others were more prosaic speakers, such as Joseph Stalin and Francisco 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.{{cite book|last=Morstein |first=Marx Fritz |display-authors=etal |title=Propaganda and Dictatorship |publisher=Princeton UP |isbn=978-1-4067-4724-9|date=March 2007 }}

Mussolini and Hitler used similar titles referring to them as "the Leader". Mussolini used "Il Duce" and Hitler was generally referred to as "der Führer", both meaning 'Leader' in Italian and German respectively. Franco used a similar title, "El Caudillo" ("the Head", 'the chieftain'){{cite book|ref=Hamil|editor=Hamil, Hugh M. |title=Caudillos: Dictators in Spanish America|publisher =University of Oklahoma Press|year= 1992|isbn=978-0-8061-2428-5|chapter=Introduction|pages=5–6}} and for Stalin his adopted name, meaning "Man of Steel", became synonymous with his role as the absolute leader. For Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco, the use of modest, non-traditional titles displayed their absolute power even stronger as they did not need any, not even a historic legitimacy either. However, in the case of Franco, the title "Caudillo" did have a longer history for political-military figures in both Latin America and Spain. Franco also used the phrase "By the Grace of God" on coinage or other material displaying him as Caudillo, whereas Hitler and Mussolini rarely used such language or imagery. {{cn|date=October 2024}}

== Human rights abuses, war crimes and genocides ==

File:0718-Syria-Defectors-reemerge.jpg, Syrian military inflicted industrial-scale atrocities on civilian population during the Syrian civil war. These include hundreds of chemical attacks, such as the Ghouta chemical attack, the largest chemical attack in the 21st century.{{cite news |author=S.B. |url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/pomegranate/2013/08/syria-s-war |title=Syria's war: If this isn't a red line, what is? |newspaper=The Economist |date=21 August 2013 |access-date=15 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220174814/http://www.economist.com/blogs/pomegranate/2013/08/syria-s-war |archive-date=20 December 2014 |url-status=live }}{{cite web|url=http://www.theweek.co.uk/world-news/syria-uprising/54759/syria-gas-attack-death-toll-1400-worst-halabja|title=Syria gas attack: death toll at 1,400 worst since Halabja|work=The Week|date=22 August 2013|access-date=24 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130825115627/http://www.theweek.co.uk/world-news/syria-uprising/54759/syria-gas-attack-death-toll-1400-worst-halabja|archive-date=25 August 2013|url-status=live}}{{Cite web |last=D. Ward |first=Kenneth |date=September 2021 |title=Syria, Russia, and the Global Chemical Weapons Crisis |url=https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2021-09/features/syria-russia-global-chemical-weapons-crisis |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230708153519/https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2021-09/features/syria-russia-global-chemical-weapons-crisis |archive-date=8 July 2023 |website=Arms Control Association}}]]

Over time, dictators have been known to use tactics that violate human rights. For example, under the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, government policy was enforced by secret police and the Gulag system of prison labour 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 as 1,053,829."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.." The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudan's military dictator Omar al-Bashir over alleged war crimes in Darfur.

Similar crimes were committed during Chairman Mao Zedong's rule over the People's Republic of China during China's Cultural Revolution, where Mao set out to purge dissidents, primarily through the use of youth groups strongly committed to his cult of personality,{{cite web|date=18 August 2012|title=Remembering the dark days of China's Cultural Revolution|url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1017272/remembering-dark-days-chinas-cultural-revolution|access-date=2021-07-15|website=South China Morning Post|language=en|archive-date=2018-06-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180609084717/http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1017272/remembering-dark-days-chinas-cultural-revolution|url-status=live}} and during Augusto Pinochet's junta in Chile.Pamela Constable and Arturo Valenzuela, A Nation of Enemies: Chile Under Pinochet, New York: W.W Norton & Company, 1993., p. 91 Some dictators have been associated with genocide on certain races or groups; the most notable and wide-reaching example is the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler's genocide of eleven million people, of whom six million were Jews.{{cite web|title=The Holocaust|url=https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/holocaust|access-date=2021-07-15|website=The National WWII Museum {{!}} New Orleans|language=en|archive-date=2021-07-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715152635/https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/holocaust|url-status=live}} Later on in Democratic Kampuchea, General Secretary Pol Pot and his policies killed an estimated 1.7 million people (out of a population of 7 million) during his four-year dictatorship."{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2097426_2097427_2097449,00.html |title=Top 15 Toppled Dictators |magazine=Time |date=20 October 2011 |access-date=4 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130824000146/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2097426_2097427_2097449,00.html |archive-date=2013-08-24 |url-status=dead }} As a result, Pol Pot is sometimes described as "the Hitler of Cambodia" and "a genocidal tyrant".William Branigin, [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-664002.html Architect of Genocide Was Unrepentant to the End] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130509211319/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-664002.html |date=2013-05-09 }} The Washington Post, April 17, 1998

= Modern usage in formal titles =

File:Giuseppe Garibaldi portrait2.jpg, celebrated as one of the greatest generals of modern times{{Cite web|title=Scholar and Patriot|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iWK7AAAAIAAJ&q=Garibaldi%2Bone%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bgreatest%2Bgenerals%2Bof%2Bmodern%2Btime&pg=PAPA133|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240328152801/https://books.google.com/books?id=iWK7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PAPA133&q=Garibaldi%2Bone%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bgreatest%2Bgenerals%2Bof%2Bmodern%2Btime#v=onepage&q=Garibaldi%2Bone%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bgreatest%2Bgenerals%2Bof%2Bmodern%2Btime&f=false|archive-date=28 March 2024|access-date=5 April 2020|publisher=Manchester University Press|via=Google Books}} and as the "Hero of the Two Worlds" because of his military enterprises in South America and Europe,{{Cite web|title=Giuseppe Garibaldi (Italian revolutionary)|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/225978/Giuseppe-Garibaldi|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226091529/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/225978/Giuseppe-Garibaldi|archive-date=26 February 2014|access-date=6 March 2014}} who fought in many military campaigns that led to Italian unification. He proclaimed himself dictator of Sicily in 1860 during the Expedition of the Thousand]]

Because of its negative and pejorative connotations, modern authoritarian leaders very rarely (if ever) use the term dictator in their formal titles, instead they most often simply have title of president. In the 19th century, however, its official usage was more common:Moisés Prieto, ed. Dictatorship in the Nineteenth Century: Conceptualisations, Experiences, Transfers (Routledge, 2021).

The Dictatorial Government of Sicily (27 May – 4 November 1860) was a provisional executive government appointed by Giuseppe Garibaldi to rule Sicily during the Expedition of the Thousand. The government ended when Sicily's annexation into the Kingdom of Italy was ratified by plebiscite.Cesare Vetter, "Garibaldi and the dictatorship: Features and cultural sources." in Dictatorship in the Nineteenth Century (Routledge, 2021) pp. 113–132.
Marian Langiewicz of Poland proclaimed himself Dictator and attempted (unsuccessfully) to form a Polish government in March 1863.{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Langiewicz, Maryan}}
Romuald Traugutt was Dictator of Poland from 17 October 1863 to 10 April 1864.Stefan Kieniewicz, "Polish Society and the Insurrection of 1863." Past & Present 37 (1967): 130–148.
The Dictatorial Government of the Philippines (24 May – 23 June 1898) was an insurgent government in the Philippines which was headed by Emilio Aguinaldo, who formally held the title of Dictator.{{cite web|title=The First Philippine Republic|url=http://nhcp.gov.ph/the-first-philippine-republic/|publisher=National Historical Commission|access-date=26 May 2018|date=7 September 2012|quote=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|archive-date=27 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170127011004/http://nhcp.gov.ph/the-first-philippine-republic/|url-status=live}} The dictatorial government was superseded by the revolutionary government with Aguinaldo as president.

= Criticism =

The usage of the term dictator in western media has been criticized by the left-leaning organization Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting as "Code for Government We Don't Like". According to them, leaders that would generally be considered authoritarian but are allied with the United States such as Paul Biya or Nursultan Nazarbayev are rarely referred to as "dictators", while leaders of countries opposed to U.S. policy such as Nicolás Maduro or Bashar al-Assad have the term applied to them much more liberally.{{cite web|date=2019-04-11|title=Dictator: Media Code for 'Government We Don't Like'|url=https://fair.org/home/dictator-media-code-for-government-we-dont-like/|access-date=2021-04-07|website=FAIR|language=en-US|archive-date=2021-04-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416210800/https://fair.org/home/dictator-media-code-for-government-we-dont-like/|url-status=live}}

References

= Informational notes =

A {{note|Doctorate}}He conferred a doctorate of law on himself from Makerere University.{{cite news|url=http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1390595,00.html |title=Idi Amin: a byword for brutality |work=News24 |access-date=2007-12-02 |date=2003-07-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080605070641/http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1390595,00.html |archive-date=2008-06-05 }}
B {{note|VC}}The Victorious Cross (VC) was a medal made to emulate the British Victoria Cross.{{Cite book |last=Lloyd |first=Lorna |title=Diplomacy with a Difference: The Commonwealth Office of High Commissioner, 1880–2006 |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff |year=2007 |isbn=978-90-04-15497-1 |location=University of Michigan|page=239 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4z5Qj-7HZ68C&pg=PA239 }}