Dictatorship

A Dictatorship is a type of government ruled by one person who is either self appointed or uses a lesser elected position to claim greater power.

History

The term is taken from a Roman title, Dictator, that was often given to a military leader who served as supreme commander of forces in the Roman Republic usually only appointed during a time of war. This precedent changed with the appointment of Julius Caesar as Dictator For Life by the Roman Senate before he was assassinated by members of the same body. A dictatorship can often be also an Empire but they are not always interchangeable. Often a Dictatorship will try to put up the front of a representive type of government using the term 'Republic' when referring to themselves. They can rise in a variety of ways including a military figure seizing control in a coup d'état, from an legitimately elected leader declaring absolute power or by using an emergency to declare martial law and then never resending the emergency powers. Because of the ease with which one Dictator can be overthrown by another, many Dictators are very paranoid leading to bloody purges of potential rivals.

How a dictatorship is managed can vary widely from having the Dictator micromanage it all himself to being run by an inner circle of loyal followers to have all of the trappings of fully functional Republic with the Dictator always having the final say on political matters.

Dictatorships are very common and the ease with which they can come into power means that many modern countries and ancient could be classified as one.

Historical Examples

Dictators

• Julius Caeser
• Saddam Hussein
• Adolf Hitler
• Joseph Stalin
• Ferdinand Marcos
• Benito Mussolini

Dictatorships

• Nazi Germany
• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
• North Korea
• Republic of Iraq
• Republic of the Philippines
• Fascist Italy
• Argentine Republic

Fictional Examples

• Dominion (Star Trek)
• Galactic Empire (Star Wars)