dictator
Sign in to savethumb|upright=1.25|20th-century leaders typically described as dictators (from left to right and top to bottom): Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union; [[Adolf Hitler of Germany; Augusto Pinochet of Chile; Mao Zedong of China; Benito Mussolini of Italy; and Kim Il Sung of North Korea]] thumb|Saddam Hussein, the fifth president of Iraq, is typically described as a dictator. thumb|upright=0.9|Julius Caesar outmaneuvered his opponents in ancient Rome to install himself as dictator for life.
AI overview
A dictator is a political leader who holds absolute power over a country and rules without meaningful constraints from laws, elections, or other institutions. This matters because dictatorships typically restrict citizens' freedoms and concentrate decision-making in one person's hands, contrasting with democratic systems that distribute power among multiple branches and elected representatives.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
15 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Modern era
- Characteristics
- Benevolent dictatorship
- Military roles
- Crowd manipulation
- Human rights abuses, war crimes and genocides
- Usage in formal titles
- As a term of abuse
- See also
- References
- Informational notes
- Citations
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|upright=1.25|20th-century leaders typically described as dictators (from left to right and top to bottom): Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union; [[Adolf Hitler of Germany; Augusto Pinochet of Chile; Mao Zedong of China; Benito Mussolini of Italy; and Kim Il Sung of North Korea]] thumb|Saddam Hussein, the fifth president of Iraq, is typically described as a dictator. thumb|upright=0.9|Julius Caesar 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 defined as a state ruled by a dictator. 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.