One way is the result of political polarization , where the competing political sides no longer want to cooperate with one another, allowing violent or extremist groups to take over politics instead. When these elites feel that losing an election may mean forfeiting their power and influence over the country, they may seek to take over the country by force, turning it into a dictatorship.
Or, democracies can fall the other more subtle way, when elites first grab on to power via democratic means, before then stripping away democratic rights. Democracies are characterized by lively but peaceful debate between a variety of political parties and interest groups. In a healthy democracy, these groups agree to make compromises that will benefit their group of voters, or constituencies. But sometimes, these political groups begin disagreeing with each other so much that they no longer believe that compromise with the other group is possible.
When the political arena no longer becomes about compromise, it becomes a matter of dominating by one group over the other. In some situations, such as in the case a major economic collapse or a significant military defeat, voters may seek extreme options by choosing political parties which promise to single-handedly save the country from its economic or political woes, usually through authoritarian means.
The often unforeseen cost of electing these parties, however, is that they tend to destroy democratic principles once they enter power. In , after the end of World War I, Germany was defeated, its monarchy ousted, and a republican democracy was formed in its place. The young Weimar Republic had a highly innovative constitution that, for the first time in German history, granted all Germans broad representation and the universal right to vote.
The Entente powers imposed the harsh and deeply humiliating Treaty of Versailles that forced Germany to pay massive indemnities to the Entente powers, which left the country impoverished. The defeat also significantly destabilized German society and politics, leading to a series of revolutions and attempted coups Putsches throughout the s as various different radical groups ranging from communists to militarists sought to take over the Weimar government.
Amidst the disorder, a fringe group slowly rose to prominence: they were the National Socialists, or Nazis. They first emerged on the German political scene in when they attempted the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, a plot where they sought to take over the Weimar government by force. After six years of recovery and even some economic prosperity for Germany, the Great Depression of once again threw Weimar Germany in a desperate economic state, prompting many German voters to seek radical political options, including National Socialism.
In , the Nazis were elected to become the leading party of the German parliament, campaigning on the promise to restore German greatness by taking revenge on Britain and France for the Treaty of Versailles. The next year, an arsonist attempted to burn the German parliament building the Reichstag , which Hitler and his Nazi Party used as a pretext to seize full dictatorial control of Germany.
Over the next twelve years, they entirely dismantled the democratic political establishment; instituted the worst genocide in human history, the Holocaust; and started the bloodiest war humankind has ever experienced, World War II.
As a result, they may seek non-democratic alternatives that will protect their wealth, status, or political influence from being taken away by rival elites, or even average voters.
These non-democratic alternatives may then take power through a variety of methods. The type of dictatorship a country is ruled by typically comes down to the methods the dictator used to obtain power and how they go about maintaining it.
Ezrow and Erica Frantz lay out five types of dictatorships:. Power is obtained and maintained through military might.
The military takes control of the country usually through a direct coup , installs the dictator of its choosing typically the highest-ranking military officer , and uses force of arms to preserve its power. Power is obtained and passed on through family connections. An autocracy, monarchy, and dictatorship.
The leader may be supported by a party or military, but still retains the overwhelming majority of power, especially regarding whom to place in which governmental roles, and relies heavily upon their own charisma to maintain control.
Leaders of these dictatorships often place those loyal to them in positions of power qualified or not , and foster cults of personality to sway public opinion to their side. Like most dictators, they also often employ secret police and violence to silence critics. Also called a dominant party dictatorship or one-party state.
Multiple political parties may exist, but one dominates the government, makes all the rules, is free to disseminate propaganda, and controls every aspect of every election which may offer voters only a single candidate , thereby ensuring they win every time.
After authoritarian monarchies, these tend to be the longest-lasting dictatorships, as they can more easily install a new dictator if the existing one leaves office rare or dies. Hybrid dictatorships blend elements of the other four types. Dictatorships suffer from an obvious and significant imbalance of power. One person holds all of the country's power. Therefore, the entire country operates on the whims of that one person. A dictator may have a team of officials who advise him or her and help keep the government running, but these officials ultimately have very little control or influence.
On a similar note, a dictatorship's regular citizens have no voice in most matters. And yet, dictators still rule dozens of countries in the world. But you'll notice that Vladimir Putin's title was president, not dictator. Fidel Castro and Saddam Hussein were presidents of their respective countries. Many dictators don't usually call themselves dictators although a few have. They can be presidents, prime ministers, chancellors or even monarchs.
These rulers come to be known as dictators by the way that they wield their power. Although their regimes vary widely, most dictators have at least a few things in common.
It is he who designs those garage-red flyers that attract new recruits; it is he who is behind the marches, the flags, etc. And, of course, he is behind his own image; he hires a photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, to produce photos that project sheer strength of character and iron determination.
And again and again, he works at building up his own image as a charismatic leader. You can read Mein Kampf , for instance. In there, of course, is a very clear program: aggregate the Versailles treaty; get rid of the Jews, make Germany greater, invade the Soviet Union. But there are also many elements of the Hitler myth — you know, the voracious reader, the born orator, the unrecognised artist driven by destiny to save his people.
Mussolini, by one account, spends pretty much half of his time projecting his own image as the omniscient, omnipotent, indispensable leader of Italy, on top of running about half a dozen ministries. So, again and again, with each dictator it becomes very clear that they are ultimately responsible for building up their own cult.
They begin with a low-key approach and with every step that they increase the terror, they manage to compel people to acclaim them in public, to cheer them in public. And the key point here — coming back to what you said — is that the cult often is seen as brainless enthusiasm. If you want to know whether there is a cult of personality, you go to a country and you find out whether you can find anyone who has anything negative to say about the man in charge.
If the answer is no, you will know what a cult of personality is. EE: So, what about the people they ruled over, and possibly appealed to as well? What conclusions did you draw about them? FD: They are great actors. Dictators are great actors. Mussolini thought of himself as a great actor. We forget, also, that ordinary people have to become great actors themselves; they have to chant on command; they have to parrot the party line; they have to invoke the slogans; they have to cry, cheer, shout… on command.
So it is not just some bizarre ritual that operates under fear. Now the point here, really, about ordinary people is to make clear that the cult of personality is not designed to convince, or to persuade people that their leader truly is a great genius; no, the cult is there to destroy common sense, to destroy reason, to sow confusion, to enforce obedience, to literally isolate individuals and crush their dignity.
People have to self-monitor what they say and how they say it — and in turn they start monitoring other people.
FD: Yes. Now all of them realise that control of the press is important; that no good dictator will allow freedom of press to continue for very long. Infact, the very first act will be to close down publication houses and to eliminate, step-by-step, every single freedom.
This happens in Germany within two or three years; it happens under Mussolini in about five six years… everywhere freedom of speech becomes the victim. These are replaced by massive ministries of propaganda. And these dictators — Stalin, Mussolini and Duvalier — do that very carefully; they scrutinize what happens. So the words of the dictator, whether it is under Hitler in Germany or Stalin or Mao or Kim Il-Sung, is everywhere and in every newspaper — there are posters everywhere.
The voice of the dictator frequently, but not always, will pursue you wherever you go — certainly in the case of Germany, with loudspeaker pillars erected in cities and mobile ones taken to the countryside.
Not so in the case of Stalin, who cultivates a very remote image — so you will rarely see him in the newsreels; you will very rarely hear his voice. He very deliberately cultivates an image of remoteness. But again, as I said, Stalin himself is a compulsive editor who will check everything that is said about him in the press; every photo must be censored and approved; every word attributed to him must be approved.
Some of them are very talented — and not just organisational skills. EE: Can you speak a little bit more about that? FD: Well, one skill they have is that they are great actors. They can literally not just do it with foreigners, but with people who were quite close to them. But Lin Biao writes, at the height of the Great Leap Forward when literally tens of millions of people were worked, starved and beaten to death , Lin Biao writes that Mao is someone who will only take credit and he will not be criticised for anything; you must flatter him all day long.
Neither Mao nor Stalin will react when somebody opposes them; they know how to bide their time; they know how to calculate — in a very cold manner — and they know how to strike like a cobra when they need to. Can you talk about this? A great many of them do cultivate this image of modesty. Hitler is not one of them.
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