Mancur Olson suggests that the emergence of dictatorships may be linked to the concept of “wandering bandits,” individuals in a nuclear system who move from place to place to deprive individuals of wealth. These bandits act as a deterrent to investment and production. Olson explains that a community of individuals would be less underserved if this bandit established himself as a stationary bandit to monopolize theft in the form of taxes. Aside from the community, the bandits themselves are better served, Olson said, turning into “stationary bandits.” By settling down and becoming masters of a territory, they will be able to make more profits from taxes than they did before through plunder. By maintaining order and unsolicited protection of the community, bandits will create an environment where people can increase their surplus, which means a broader tax base. Thus, a potential dictator will have a greater incentive to give an illusion of security to a particular community from which he derives taxes, and conversely, the thoughtless part of the people from whom he deducts taxes is more likely to produce because they do not care about a possible theft by other bandits. This is the reasoning used by bandits to explain their transformation from “roving bandits” to “stationary bandits”. [65] However, one of the most recent classifications of dictatorships does not identify totalitarianism as a form of dictatorship. Barbara Geddes` study focuses on how relations between elites and elites influence authoritarian politics. Their typology identifies the key institutions that structure elite politics in dictatorships (i.e. parties and the military).
The study is based on and directly related to factors such as simplicity of categorizations, cross-border applicability, focus on elites and leaders, and the inclusion of institutions (party and military) at the heart of policymaking. According to them, a dictatorial government can be divided into five typologies: military dictatorships, one-party dictatorships, personalist dictatorships, monarchies and hybrid dictatorships. [10] After the collapse of Spanish colonial rule, various dictators came to power in many liberated countries. These caudillos, or self-proclaimed politico-military leaders, who often led a private army, attacked weak national governments as soon as they controlled the political and economic powers of a region, with examples like Antonio López de Santa Anna in Mexico and Juan Manuel de Rosas in Argentina. Such dictatorships were also called “personalismos”. Alfredo Stroessner`s Paraguay took power in the 1954 coup against President Federico Chávez,[13] followed by the Brazilian military dictatorship, which took power in 1964 and overthrew President João Goulart. [41] In 1931, a coup was staged against the government of Arturo Araujo, which triggered the period known as El Salvador`s military dictatorship of the Civic Directorate. The government committed several crimes against humanity, such as La Matanza (The Massacre of the Germans), a peasant uprising in which the military murdered between 10,000 and 40,000 peasants and civilians, the dictatorship ended in 1979. A dictatorship is a form of government characterized by a single leader (dictator) or group of leaders who retain the governmental power promised to the people and have little or no tolerance for political pluralism or independent media. [2] In most dictatorships, the country`s constitution promises its citizens inalienable rights and fair elections. Since democracy is a form of government in which “those who govern are chosen by periodically contested elections (in years)”, dictatorships are not democracies. [2] During the Republican period of ancient Rome, a Roman dictator was the special judge who had well-defined powers, usually for six months at a time, usually in combination with a consulate.
[29] [30] Roman dictators were given absolute power when needed. In the execution, its power was originally neither arbitrary nor irresponsible, as it was subject to the law and required subsequent justification. After the beginning of the 2nd century BC, such dictatorships did not exist, and later dictators such as Sulla and the Roman emperors exercised power much more personally and arbitrarily. A concept that remained anathema to traditional Roman society, the institution was not adopted in the Roman Empire. A new form of government (which appeared around the beginning of the 20th century) commonly associated with the concept of dictatorship is known as totalitarianism. It is characterized by the presence of a single political party and, in particular, by a powerful leader (true role model) who asserts his personal and political importance. The two fundamental aspects that contribute to the maintenance of power are unwavering cooperation between the government and the police and a highly developed ideology. The government has “total control over mass communications and social and economic organizations.” [9] According to Hannah Arendt, totalitarianism is a new and extreme form of dictatorship composed of “atomized and isolated individuals.” [10] Moreover, it asserted that ideology plays a leading role in defining the organization of society as a whole. According to political scientist Juan Linz, the difference between an authoritarian regime and a totalitarian regime is that while an authoritarian regime tries to stifle politics and political mobilization, totalitarianism tries to control politics and political mobilization. [11] According to a 2019 study, personalist dictatorships are more repressive than other forms of dictatorship.
[16] Between the two world wars, three types of dictatorships were described: constitutional, counter-revolutionary and fascist. Since World War II, a wider range of dictatorships have been recognized, including Third World dictatorships, theocratic or religious dictatorships, and dynastic or family dictatorships. [28] With the advent of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the nineteenth century, dictatorships and constitutional democracies emerged as the world`s two main forms of government, gradually eliminating monarchies with significant political power, the most widespread form of government in the pre-industrial era. Typically, in a dictatorial regime, the ruler of the country is identified with the title of dictator; Although their formal title might be more similar to Führer. A common aspect that characterized the dictatorship was the exploitation of its strong personality, usually by suppressing the freedom of thought and expression of the masses, in order to maintain complete political and social domination and stability. Dictatorships and totalitarian societies generally use political propaganda to reduce the influence of proponents of alternative systems of government. [3] [4] One of the justifications regularly advanced by the Bush administration in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq is that the removal of Saddam Hussein and the installation of a democratic government in Iraq would promote democracy in other Middle Eastern countries. [63] According to the Huffington Post, “The 45 nations and territories with little or no democratic rule account for more than half of the roughly 80 countries that now host U.S. bases.
Political scientist Kent Calder`s research confirms what has come to be called the “dictatorship hypothesis”: the United States tends to support dictators [and other non-democratic regimes] in countries where it has bases. [64] Personalist dictatorships are regimes in which all power is in the hands of a single individual. Personalist dictatorships differ from other forms of dictatorships in their access to key political positions, other fruits of office and depend much more on the discretion of the personalist dictator. Personalist dictators can be members of the military or leaders of a political party. But neither the army nor the party exercises power independently of the dictator. In personalist dictatorships, the elite corps usually consists of close friends or family members of the dictator. These individuals are usually all handpicked by the dictator to fill their positions. [10] [14] One-party dictatorships are regimes in which one party dominates politics. In one-party dictatorships, only one party has access to political positions and political control.
In one-party dictatorships, party elites are usually members of the party`s governing body, sometimes called the Central Committee, Politburo, or Secretariat. These groups of individuals control the selection of party officials and “organize the distribution of benefits to supporters and mobilize citizens to vote and show their support for party leaders.” [10] In the first half of the 20th century, right-wing dictatorships emerged in a large number of European countries at the same time as communism, distinct from the dictatorships of Latin America and the postcolonial dictatorships of Africa and Asia. Although many Latin American dictatorships came from the political right, the Soviet Union also supported the socialist states of Latin America. Cuba under Fidel Castro was an excellent example of such a state. Castro`s government was installed after the Cuban Revolution, which overthrew the government of dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, making it the first socialist state in the Western Hemisphere. In 2008, Castro left power and was replaced by his brother Raúl.