Dictator
Although it originally referred to a clearly-defined magistracy, the term "dictator" has come to have be a vaguely-defined, connotatively negative word which usually carries overtones of totalitarianism or authoritarianism. It is frequently associated with brutality and oppression.
See also: Dictatorship, dictatorship of the proletariat, autocrat, monarch, military dictatorship, President for Life.
A legal innovation of the Roman Republic, the dictator (lit., "one who speaks") -- also known as the magister populi ("master of the peoples") -- was an extraordinary magistrate (magistratus extraordinarius) whose function was to perform extraordinary tasks exceeding the authority of any of the ordinary magistrates. The Roman Senate passed a senatus consultum authorizing the consuls to nominate a dictator, who was the sole exception to the Roman legal principles of collegiality (multiple tenants of the same office) and 'responsibility\' (being legally able to be held to answer for actions in office); there could never be more than one dictator at any one time for any reason, and no dictator could ever be held legally responsible for any action during his time in office for any reason. The dictator was the highest magistrate in degree of precedence (praetor maximus) and was attended by 24 lictors.
There were actually several different types of dictatorate. The most famous type is the dictator rei gerendae causa, who was appointed in times of military emergency for six months or for the duration of the emergency, whichever period was shorter. This dictator held absolute military and civil power in the State, and was obligated to appoint as his deputy a master of the horse (magister equitum). When the dictator left office, the office of master of the horse immediately ceased to exist. Other types of dictators were occasionally appointed for more mundane reasons: comitiorum habendorum causa (for summoning the comitia for elections), clavi figendi causa (for fixing the clavus annalis in the temple of Jupiter), feriarum constituendarum causa (for appointing holidays), ludorum faciendorum causa (for officiating at public games), quaestionibus exercendis (for holding certain trials), and legendo senatui (for filling vacancies in the Senate).
The best known dictatores rei gerendae causa were Cincinnatus and Fabius Maximus (during the Second Punic War). Thereafter this form of dictatorate fell into disuse. After the falling out of Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the latter marched on Rome and had himself appointed to an entirely new office, dictator rei publicae constituendae causa, which was functionally identical to the dictatorate rei gerendae causa except that it lacked any time limit. Sulla held this office for years before he voluntarily abdicated and retired from public life.
Julius Caesar subsequently resurrected the dictatorate rei gerendae causa in his first dictatorship, then modified it to a full year term. He was appointed dictator rei gerendae causa for a full year in 46 BC and then designated for nine consecutive one-year terms in that office thereafter, functionally becoming dictator for ten years. A year later, this pretense was discarded altogether and the Senate voted to make him dictator perpetuus (usually rendered in English as "dictator for life", but properly meaning "perpetual dictator").
After Caesar's murder on the Ides of March, his consular colleague Marcus Antonius passed a lex Antonia which abolished the dictatorate and expunged it from the constitutions of the Republic. The office was later offered to Caesar Augustus, who prudently declined it, and opted instead for tribunician power and consular imperium without holding any office other than pontifex maximus and princeps senatus -- a politic arrangement which left him as functional dictator without having to hold the controversial title or office itself.
In modern times, the term "dictator" is generally used to describe a public leader who has assumed an extraconstitutional or unconstitutional degree of power within the State, either by regular or irregular means; in this sense, it is comparable to (but not synonymous with) the ancient definition of a tyrant. As a result, diverse classes of people are described as dictators, from lawfully installed government ministers like Antonio Salazar and Engelbert Dollfuss, to unofficial military strongmen like Manuel Noriega to stratocrats like Francisco Franco and Augusto Pinochet.
In the modern definition, "dictatorship" is associated with brutality and oppression, most notoriously in the cases of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong, who are known to be responsible for the deaths of millions. As a result, it is often used as a term of abuse for political oppponents; Henry Clay's dominance of the U.S. Congress as Speaker of the House and as a member of the U.S. Senate led to his nickname "the Dictator". The term has also come to be associated with megalomania; many dictators have come to favor increasingly grandiloquent titles and honors for themselves. E.g., Idi Amin Dada, who had been an army lieutenant prior to Uganda's independence from Britain in October 1962, subsequently styled himself as "His Excellency President for Life Field Marshal Al Hadji Dr. Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular". Cf. the self-appointment as "Dictator-for-Life and Ruler Supreme of G.R.O.S.S." of one of the title characters in Bill Watterson's comic strip Calvin & Hobbes.
The association between the dictator and the military is a very common one; many dictators take great pains to emphasize their connections with the military and often wear military uniforms. In some cases, this is perfectly natural; Franco was a lieutenant general in the Spanish Army before he became Chief of State of the Spanish State, and Noriega was officially commander of the Panamanian Defense Forces. In other cases, this is mere pretense; Stalin appointed himself "Generalissimo of the Soviet Union" despite having no real military background.
Most dictators are installed by coup d'état. In many cases, this is the result of a weak government in poor or otherwise unstable countries; in such circumstances it is quite easy for an organized military cadre to seize control. This almost stereotypical scenario is popularly known as a military dictatorship. Not all dictators are installed through such illegal means, however; Salazar and Dollfuss were economics professors who were lawfully appointed Portuguese prime minister and Austrian chancellor, respectively. The most famous dictator of all, Hitler, was lawfully appointed chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg, by whom Hitler had been democratically defeated in the presidential elections.
One of the greatest weaknesses of dictatorships like those of Salazar, Dollfuss, and Franco is that they are broadly non-ideological and rely considerably on the personal leadership of the dictator. The result is that the dictator's death effectually puts an end to any sort of consistent policy in government. The prominent "one party state" dictatorship attempts to correct this weakness by concentrating power in the hands of a more or less ideologically homogeneous political party, usually to the extent that other parties are simply outlawed. The most famous monopolistic parties of this type are the National-Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party in Germany), the Union of Combat (Fascist Party in Italy), and the Communist Party in a large number of countries; the Communists have been much more successful in using this system than the Nazis or the Fascists, which groups both tended toward a form of quasi-idolatry (see below).
The most difficult dictatorship to classify is the so-called "royal dictatorship". In such cases, the king or queen (or emperor, &c.) acts directly on his or her own behalf in a fashion more or less comparable to the modern conception of a dictator, but it is difficult to see how this differs from the doctrine of monarchical absolutism. One of the most prominent examples of an absolutist monarchy in the modern world is Saudi Arabia, whose king possesses exclusive executive, judicial, and legislative power, and acts as his own prime minister. An older example of a "royal dictator" is Napoléon I, the Emperor of the French.
Many dictators are surprisingly conscious of their public images, and take great pains to portray themselves as capable, heroic, and benevolent. In many cases, this is manifested by enthusiastic use of propaganda and very often by the establishment of a quasi-idolatrous personality cult or "cult of the leader" centered around the greatness and wisdom of the dictator. Fascist Italy provided the quintessential example of this with the famous phrase recited by schoolchildren, "Mussolini is always right". In some cases, this sort of narcissism writ large can seem grotesque and even ludicrous to foreign observers, e.g., the abundance of statues and images of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung in North Korea.
The "benevolent dictator" is a more modern version of the classical "enlightened despot", being an undemocratic ruler who exercises his or her political power for the benefit of the people rather than exclusively for his or her own benefit. Like many political classifications, this term suffers from its inherent subjectivity. Such leaders as Franco, Pinochet, Anwar Sadat and Fidel Castro could be characterized as (relatively) benevolent dictators, but in all their cases it depends largely on one's point of view as to just how "benevolent" they were or are. Needless to say, most dictators' regimes unfailingly portray themselves as benevolent dictatorships.
The Dictator in Ancient Rome
The Dictator in Modern Times
Many dictators wear elaborate military uniforms with many decorations. Pictured here is 'Field Marshal' Idi Amin Dada of UgandaThe Benevolent Dictator?
Famous Dictators: A Brief Selection
