For most people living in western democracies, we think of democracy as a natural order of things. As something that humans just instinctively do; an inherent right. But that’s not always the case. Dictators and authoritarians keep popping up throughout history, overturning democratic systems and sowing chaos in the world. How do they do it? Why does it keep happening? And why are se seeing more of it lately?
TRANSCRIPT:
What you’re about to watch is one of the most chilling videos ever captured.
The day is July 22, 1979. The ruling Ba’ath Party in Iraq has just elected their new president, Saddam Hussein. On his first day in office, he calls a meeting at the party headquarters to set the agenda for his upcoming term.
With the delegates surrounding him in the great hall, he breaks into a speech.
In the speech, he tells of a conspiracy he’s uncovered in the Ba’ath party. A conspiracy to overthrow him and prevent him from from carrying out his duly elected responsibilities as president. He frames it as a conspiracy against democracy itself.
Then, a man is escorted onto the stage. He looks tired, broken. Under duress. His name is Muhyi Adbeck Hussein, a senior Ba’ath party leader. And as he ascends to the podium, he admits that what Saddam said was true. There is a wide conspiracy against him. He knows this because he was part of it.
He confesses to trying to overthrow Saddam’s new government and then… starts naming names. Names of other people in the room who were also in on the conspiracy.
One by one as the names are announced, uniformed guards escort each person from the room. In all, 66 men were removed.
Fear swept through the gallery as the delegates began to realize what was happening. The remaining men began standing and shouting their allegiance with chants of “long live Saddam” and swearing their loyalty to him to avoid the same fate. Their voices swelled into a panicked cacophony as Saddam coolly smoked a cigar, basking in the glory.
Then, gunfire echoed through the hall as outside, as loyalists were handed guns and ordered to execute the men who were removed. In one fell swoop, Saddam Hussein wiped clean anybody that would stand in his way, and sent a brutal signal to his party and the world that he and he alone had full control over the country.
This day one coup of the Iraqi government set up a dictatorship that would last for a quarter of a century, and became one of the most infamous moments in geopolitical history.
This is just one of many examples of how democracies fall to authoritarianism and dictatorships. And today we’re going to look at some other famous examples, examine how they happen, and how we can prevent them from happening again.
Removing your perceived enemies. Pressured loyalty from those below you. Consolidating power.
These are the obvious signs of authoritarian behavior. Maybe even dictatorial behavior.
But what defines a dictator? Is there a clear definition?
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a dictator is “a leader who has complete power in a country and has not been elected by the people.”
The Encyclopedia Britannica defines a dictator as “a single person who possesses absolute political power within a country or territory or a member of a small group that exercises such power.”
The term comes from Latin, and during the Roman Republic, it was a title for a temporary magistrate who was granted great power to deal with state crises.
But modern dictators are more like ancient tyrants. They rely on force or fraud to gain political power. And they keep this power through intimidation, terror, propaganda, and the suppression of civil liberties.
Another term that gets thrown around with dictatorship is totalitarianism. While the two are closely related, there is a difference.
With totalitarianism, all political institutions are replaced with new ones. Legal, political, and social traditions are also wiped away.
A totalitarian state pursues a goal, and all resources are directed toward that goal, regardless of anything else.
With that said, let’s look at some dictators and how they came to power, starting with who we were just talking about at the beginning of the video.
Saddam Hussein
Joined the Ba’ath Party in the 1950s.
The Ba’ath Party led a successful coup in 1968, and Saddam was appointed to a high-ranking position as the president’s deputy.
He used this position over the next decade to consolidate power over the party and the government. He gained control over Iraq’s intelligence agencies and security forces.
He used oil revenues to improve the country’s infrastructure, healthcare, and educational institutions, which made him popular with certain parts of the population, while he also targeted political opponents.
He formally took over as president in 1979 and then purged the government of any threats.
Maintained control through:
- Powerful secret police/intelligence agencies
- Cult of personality
- Placing family members in key positions
- Brutal suppression of opposition (especially Kurds and Shia)
- Oil wealth to fund military and security apparatus
Adolf Hitler
In the 1930 elections in Germany, the National Socialists (Nazis) won 18.3 percent of the vote, making them the second-largest party in the Reichstag. By 1932, they had 37.3 percent of the vote, making them the largest party.
Just to back up a little bit, the Reichstag was basically German Parliament, and it operated on proportional representation. And there were several parties in the Weimar Reichstag, nine of them actually, and whichever party held the most seats got to appoint a Chancellor that led the parliament.
The Chancellor shared power with the President, who had control of the military. It was kind-of like the Chancellor handled internal affairs and the President handled foreign policy. That’s a simplification but you get the idea.
So when the National Socialists gained power in 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor. He had risen through the ranks to become a leader of the party through his fiery speeches and popular manifestos.
And other parties joined in with their support because they wanted to use his popularity and cultish devotion by his followers to their advantage.
Literally four weeks after Hitler was named Chancellor, a massive fire broke out in the Reichstag building, which was blamed on a member of the German Communist Party, which just happened to be the main opposition to the National Socialists.
In the spirit of never letting a disaster go to waste, Hitler and the National Socialists passed the Reichstag Fire Decree, which suspended civil liberties and allows for the arrest of political opponents.
By the way, there’s still a debate to this day whether or not the Reichstag fire was actually set Marinus van der Lubbe or if it was intentionally set by Hitler’s goons. Most historians believe it was just a lucky break for the Nazis… but they controlled so much of the media around it at the time, it’s hard to say.
Regardless, he wasted no time in capitalizing on the event, using it to cook up conspiracies around the communist party and arresting higher-ups. In March 1933, he pushed through the Enabling Act that gave him dictatorial powers and allowed his cabinet to create laws without the Reichstag’s approval.
In practice, this basically outlawed other parties.
Over the next year, Hitler continued to solidify control over the party, but there were still some powerful members from the early days that carried a lot of influence, many of whom opposed some of his tactics, like having his own private paramilitary groups.
So to fully solidify his power over the party, Hitler and his inner circle carried out the Night of the Long Knives in June 1934, where in one night, they systematically raided and executed over 80 high ranking party members, claiming they were in on a vast conspiracy against him and by extension, the country.
Just a few months after that, in August of 1934, the German president Paul von Hindenberg died. And before you start thinking there were shenanigans there, he died of natural causes, he was 86.
But in that vacancy, Hitler declared that the conspiring forces were too strong to hold an election for president, so he just appointed himself president, and then combined the roles of Chancellor and President into one role – the Führer.
Fidel Castro
So Fidel Castro is a guy who was just always fighting for something.
I mean when he was 21 he joined a group of revolutionaries trying to topple the government in the Dominican Republic.
The next year, in 1948, he was speaking to the Conference of American States in Bogota arguing against the influence of “Non Latin Americans in Latin America”
He got his law degree and continued being politically active until he ran for office in 1952. He didn’t win but it didn’t matter because later that year, Fulgencio Batista eized power in a military coup, suspending the constitution and canceling elections.
Castro formed his own paramilitary group he called “The Movement” to oppose Batista and in July of 1953, they launched an attack on the Moncada Barracks. He thought that if they were successful in taking over a military base, it would inspire the rest of the country to revolution.
They failed. And it didn’t. Castro was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
But he used his trial as a chance to outline his vision for a free Cuba. He gave a fiery speech that’s come to be called, “History Will Absolve Me” speech, which gave him national recognition, and his movement only grew.
Over time, public pressure mounted on the Batista government to free Castro, which they did in 1955, but they basically banned him from Cuba.
So he fled to Mexico, continued building his movement, which he now called the July 26th Movement after the attack on the barracks and with the help of Che Guevarra, he secretly sailed back to Cuba and engaged in guerrilla warfare.
He won over the peasants and workers in the country by basically promising to leave office after only 2 years. He basically said, “Give me two years and I’ll bring back democracy. Power to the people.”
It was especially easy to win them over because by 1958, Batista was extremely unpopular.
Tons of corruption, repression, and economic problems.
Castro’s forces took over larger and larger areas of Cuba until Batista saw the writing on the wall and fled the country. Castro declared victory in January 1959.
And true to his word, he only stayed in office for two— I’m sorry, fifty years.
Yeah, he just never got around to that whole “stepping down” thing, maybe because he was busy taking over every agency in the government and filling it with cronies and family members.
He effectively created a cult of personality around himself, communicating directly with his people over the radio waves and nationalized industries, bringing it all under his control.
But yeah, he stayed in power and became an important world figure for just under 50 years. He left office in 2008 – when he handed over control to his brother.
Who just left office in 2021.
At that point there was no opposition and he became the sole and absolute ruler of Germany.
Augusto Pinochet
In the early 1970s in Chile, inflation was high, there were shortages of basic goods, and tons of strikes by groups opposed to the government.
In August 1973, General Pinochet was appointed as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army, to help maintain order.
On September 11, 1973, Pinochet led a military coup against the Chilean government. Other Chilean military leaders helped coordinate the coup.
Thousands of President Allende’s supporters were arrested, tortured, or executed after the coup. Pinochet emerged as the head of a four-man military junta and quickly established himself as the primary leader.
After the coup, Pinochet eliminated all potential opposition. The junta dissolved Congress, banned political parties, and implemented strict censorship, closing down opposition media. A state of emergency was declared, giving the military sweeping powers to control public life.
By 1974, he declared himself Supreme Leader and officially assumed the title of President.
Pinochet ruled with an iron fist. The government established a powerful secret police force that targeted perceived opponents of Pinochet. More than a thousand Chileans were detained, tortured, or disappeared during his rule.
Indira Gandhi
Do you notice anything about these four examples? That’s right, they’re all men. Throughout history, dictators have primarily been men.
Sure, some strong, female leaders and wives of dictators weren’t well-liked by their country’s population, but they never rose to the definition of a dictator.
The closest we have to a modern-age female dictator is Indira Gandhi (no relation to Mahatma Gandhi).
She ruled India as its prime minister from the 1960s to the 1980s.
She came to power as the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the head of the Indian National Congress.
One of the dictatorial things she did was declare a state of emergency in 1975. This suspended civil liberties, and opposition leaders were arrested.
She ended the state of emergency two years later, held elections, lost, and stepped down.
So, she was really only a democratically elected dictator for two years.
Another thing about these examples is that they’re all from the 20th century. Surely, Y2K didn’t end dictatorship.
Nope, it’s thriving in about 60 countries today.
Some of the current dictators include:
Kim Jong-un (North Korea)
- Inherited power from father, Kim Jong-il
- Maintains strict control through:
◦ Personality cult
◦ Military loyalty
◦ Strict media/internet control
◦ Isolation from outside world
◦ Surveillance system
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (Egypt)
- Came to power through a military coup
- Former military chief
- Restricts political opposition
- Controls media
- Uses security forces to maintain order
Aleksandr Lukashenko (Belarus)
- Often called “Europe’s last dictator”
- Has won contested elections since 1994
- Controls media and security forces
- Suppresses opposition and protests
- Particularly notable crackdown after 2020 elections
Nicolás Maduro (Venezuela)
- Succeeded Hugo Chávez
- Maintains power through military support
- Controls state resources and media
- Has overseen economic crisis
- Opposition leaders are often imprisoned/exiled
Looking at lists of dictators, we can see that there are different kinds. It comes down to the methods they used to obtain power and how they maintain that power.
In their book, Dictators and Dictatorships: Understanding Authoritarian Regimes and Their Leaders, Natasha M. Ezrow and Erica Frantz offer five types of dictatorships:
1. Military dictatorship:
- Power obtained and maintained through the military.
- Military takes control of the country (often a coup), installs a dictator of its choosing (most-often the highest-ranking military officer), and uses force to preserve its power.
2. Monarchies:
- Power obtained and passed on through family connections.
- It’s a turducken of autocracy, monarchy, and dictatorship.
3. Personalistic dictatorships:
- Leader may be supported by a party or military but maintains overwhelming majority of power.
- Relies heavily upon their charisma to maintain control.
- Leaders of these dictatorships often place loyalists in positions of power (qualified or not).
- Foster cults of personality to sway public opinion to their side.
- They also often employ secret police and violence to silence critics.
4. Single-party dictatorships:
- 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, 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 or dies.
5. Hybrid dictatorships:
- Hybrid dictatorships blend elements of the other four types.
- Examples include the Personalist/Military dictatorship of Pakistan from 1977 to 1988 and the Single-Party/Military hybrid that controlled El Salvador from 1948 to 1984.
While these are the different types of dictatorships, the ultimate question is how they actually come to power.
As we’ve seen, the most common method is through a military coup. It’s usually quick and violent with immediate control of armed forces. It’s justified as “restoring order.” Dictator examples include Pinochet in Chile and Gaddafi in Libya.
Another method is democratic backsliding where institutions are gradually eroded. These types of dictators often rise up through the government by being elected legitimately at first. Then they weaken the media, pack courts with loyalists, and change the country’s constitution. Examples include Hitler and Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez.
There are also revolutionary takeovers that create dictators. Some of the common features of this method are mass mobilizations and ideological justification. Examples include Castro and Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini.
Inheritance or dynasty is another method. Its features include established loyalty networks and a built-in power structure. There’s also often a cult of personality around these dictators. Examples include North Korea’s Kim family and Syria’s Assad family.
Finally, dictators can also arise from a party takeover. The methods include building a loyalty system and eliminating rivals. Examples include Saddam Hussein and Joseph Stalin.
I could go on but the point is, every dictator is different, but there are similarities in how dictators come to power. A playbook, if you will.
They often exploit moments of crisis or instability. Autocrats thrive in moments of chaos because psychologically people want stability and will support a strongman, even if it’s the same person who created the chaos.
They’ll often regularly use the unrest as an excuse to impose martial law or suspend the constitution, basically to give themselves emergency powers that they rarely give up later.
It’s also not uncommon for them to push their opponents to the point of violence so they can use that violence as an excuse to take over.
Which they do by gaining control of security forces. This might be the actual government military or police forces or it might be the formation of their own personal security forces.
Because they can pontificate and bluster all they want but eventually they need the brute force to bend people to their will and do things like…
Eliminate their opposition. This can be done through electoral shenanigans but it can also mean jailing, banishing, or straight up executing them.
Dictators want to control the media, especially the cult of personality types. They want people to be hearing only good things about themselves or just saturate the media with stories about themselves to maintain relevance in people’s lives.
This can mean jailing or executing journalists under the guise of defending the state against treasonous messaging. It can also be done through disinformation campaigns to flood the media with false of contradictory facts to confuse people and sow chaos.
They maintain strict economic control by nationalizing industries and directing government money to their friends and industries that are favorable for them and away from others that aren’t.
This also can be weaponized against the populace by keeping people too poor and hungry to rebel – or, the opposite, by showering the populace with gifts and infrastructure to secure their allegiance.
And of course they carefully maintain loyalty networks. Dictatorships are not a meritocracy, they are a “I’ll suck up to this guy so that he’ll put me in a position of power-ocracy”
Nothing is more important to a dictator than unquestioning loyalty. And they often make examples of those around them to show what happens if you’re not loyal enough.
Like, I imagine the most stressful job on the planet is being in Kim Jong Un’s inner circle.
Now it’s no secret that countries around the world are leaning more authoritarian these days. Even here in the US, people seem to be embracing things that were pretty unthinkable even 10 years ago.
And again, it’s because there’s a lot of things freaking people out, there’s a lot of chaos out there, climate change, the pandemic and its knock-on effects, erosion of cultural institutions, economic insecurity, and by the way, we don’t talk about this nearly enough, but we are smack dab in the middle of a revolution in communications technology.
We’ve gotten so used to the internet that we forget how new it is, especially since smart phones and social media morphed it into what it currently is. We’re still kinda figuring out what kind of world this is going to be.
And every revolution in communications technology has been followed by social upheaval, from the printing press to the radio, and TV these things shake up society. And this
And this revolution has happened so fast, and it’s so pervasive in our lives that yeah, we’re going to struggle with this.
I don’t know how bad the current wave of authoritarianism is going to be, but I do think it’s a product of the moment, and the thing about moments is, they pass. It might get worse before it gets better, because dictators almost always take things too far and the pendulum is always swinging, but very few dictators’ stories have a happy ending.
As for what you can do, first of all, be educated on how dictatorships work so you can keep your eye out for the signs. There’s a great book (short book) called On Tyranny that’s fantastic for that.
And have a line. What’s your line? What’s the thing that is a bridge too far for you? And talk about it with friends and family, talk about their line, and hold them to it.
Authoritarianism often relies on people moving their goal posts; letting things creep just a little bit further and a little bit further until you don’t recognize things anymore.
So have a line. Convince others around you to have a line. And stick to it.
Like something I noticed a lot of these dictators did was nationalize the food system and then had to institute rations when their food production went down – usually because the person they put in charge was a loyal buddy and not an expert.
That’s exactly what happened in Cuba with Che Guaverra. Again, he was not a good guy.
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