Slight delay....ok, there we go. Dictate!

Firstly I apologize for the delay in posts. I will do my best to update every other day.

To help us understand dictatorship, we have to go back, way back, to the very roots of the concept.

Dictator has become synonymous with "tyrant" and gained a bad rep. But it didn't start off as the definition for the usurper of power. In fact, a dictator used to be the term for the person chosen, by the Roman Senate, to be granted all political power over the citizens in times of war or threat to the state. The office lasted 6 months or until the end of a particular war campaign and was usually held by an experienced general, military advisor, or politician. But note: the transfer of power was done freely.

"The existence of dictatorships often relies solely upon the power which they are capable of exerting over their citizens. Without it, they usually disintegrate or are completely ineffectual, such as the Bolshevik government of Russia shortly after it came to power. Modern dictatorships have used not only force and coercion, but also the mass media as tools of control. In China for instance, a communist single-party state, the government controls all news broadcast in the country, censors the internet, and often simply detains those who resist.

The cultures created by many dictatorships foster what has been termed the "cult of personality", where not only is the media controlled by the state, but serves to glorify it and its leader. In Nazi Germany, a picture of Adolf Hitler appeared in nearly every building. Under Saddam Hussein, every news broadcast in Iraq began with a reference to himself. Entire art museums were filled with paintings of the leader. The underlying tendency to want absolute power and control has been termed megalomania. A form of governments which imposes absolute control and personality cults is sometimes known as totalitarianism, a term originated by Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy; it is used equally for right wing ('authoritarian') dictatorships and left-wing (Marxist) 'dictatorship of the proletariat'.

Some dictatorships are supported by much of the general public, such as in Nazi Germany. These regimes often usher in a period of calm after civil war or economic hard times. Again, the governments justify their methods as responses to the current crisis, even after it has abated. Dictatorships rarely retain lasting support, however. Eventually the people begin to push for greater freedoms, and the dictatorship is forced to employ more coercive tactics in order to survive. Such was the case in the communist regimes of the Soviet block and in the third world during the Cold War, many of which enjoyed initial popular support.

Dictatorships are broadly divided into two types: those defined by a totalitarian ideology and those with no clear ideological motive, although some may be a hybrid of the two. Regimes in developed nations are more often based in some ideology, such as in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. Most others are military dictatorships (popularly known as juntas), their sole purpose often being to maintain themselves. During the Cold War, many Western-backed regimes in the developing world were military dictatorships, like the case of Augusto Pinochet in Chile. In contrast to both groups, the reign of the fascist Francisco Franco in Spain, for example, fits completely into neither category."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship

What Makes a Great Dictator?

An excellent idea Sigma! I thought given that the blog idea stemmed from what we talked about in class, I should probably post a blog. So here goes...

We always talk about what makes a good democrat -- a good democracy -- but there are still many dictatorship in the world. Is democracy the best form of government for all countries, for all people? Well, the good people in Belarus just "voted" in their dictator, Aleksandr Lukashenko back into power with 83% of the vote. Of course, there are cries of rigged elections -- but could it be that some people actually wanted him back in power? (See New York Times "A Dictator's "Re-Election"", 22 March 2006) What did he have to offer to Belarus? Some say stability -- even if he sometimes used authoriatarian means. What is his human rights record? According to Freedom House, Belarus scores 7 on political rights and 6 on civil liberties (on a scale from 1-7 with 7 being not free). Okay, so he doesn't allow for freedom of speech, political association, or real political participation -- very important if you want to be a succesful dictator. I wonder what Mr. Lukashenko's childhood was like? Often dictators have had pretty horrible childhoods -- Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic and Hitler come to mind--
Anyway, some rambling food for thought.

All Great Evil Grows From Small Sins

It started with a running joke in Dr. D's Political & Social Change course. But suppose you were a budding young war criminal. Your father gave you your first opposition-extermination unit when you were twelve. Your mother taught you how to lie to dignitaries for your fifteenth birthday and when you got flustered at your driver's license driving test at age sixteen, you killed your test proctor in the car and was issued a license by the terrified man behind the counter.

Congratulations! You have all the makings of a dictator. But you are still young, and there is much to learn. After all, you don't want to be just ANY dictator- you want to be a great one.

Welcome to Dictatorship 101!

Now sit down and shut up, or you'll be shot.