Dictatorship 101
A dictatorship is a government that dispenses with the legal system and current legislation to exercise, without any type of opposition, the authority of a country. The term is extended to the country with this form of government and the duration of this type of mandate.
The dictatorship usually concentrates its power around the figure of a single individual, who receives the name of the dictator. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini are two examples of dictators.
Upon gaining power, either by democratic means or through a coup d’état, the dictator usually forms a de facto government where there is no separation of powers and the opposition is prevented from reaching the government by institutional means (elections are suspended and political parties are prohibited, for example).
A dictatorship is a government that violates current legislation and does not abide by the legal system.
History of dictatorships
The notion of dictatorship dates back to Roman times, when supreme authority could be granted to one person (the dictator) in times of crisis, usually linked to wars.
Over time, dictatorships became predominantly military dictatorships, where the dictator is sustained by the military force that is in charge of repressing dissidents and imposing terror to prevent dissent. One can also speak of constitutional dictatorships when, under the apparent respect of the Constitution, a dictator violates the legislation to exercise power.
Beyond the political and social organization, dictatorship is known as any dominant force that exercises predominance. For example: “The dictatorship of aesthetics is imposed on the lives of adolescents. ”
It is common for dictatorships to impose censorship to prevent criticism.
A kind of totalitarianism
An ideology in which the individuality of the beings that make up society does not exist is known as totalitarianism; that is, it suppresses free will and people exist as long as they are part of society and collaborate for the normal performance of its life.
In each totalitarianism, the hegemonic ideas vary according to the ideology that sustains it, which are always extremist. As far as dictatorships are concerned, they are also guided and focused from an ideology. The dictatorship of the proletariat, for example, was based on Marxist ideas and was a creed that persecuted those who held to other political ideas but was tolerant of the proletariat and the peasantry. Its difference with the rest of the existing dictatorships until now, was that in this case the hegemony was in accordance with the ideas of the most disadvantaged classes, while the previous ones represented the ideas of the upper class or the nobility.
The fascist dictatorships
As far as dictatorships with a fascist orientation are concerned, the interests that support them are those that define an ethnic group or culture. People who are part of society do not exist as individual beings unless they feel identified by the cause and act around the “will” of the ethnic group.
Unlike other dictatorships, fascist doctrinal thought recognizes itself as the only valid one and assumes its role as a totalitarian idealist, imposing itself on the prevailing cultural diversity. And it does so by imposing an authoritarian figure to which the inhabitants must worship and subordinate.
The abuse of power
It is worth mentioning that one of the resources used by dictatorships to impose themselves is violence and abuse of authority. The citizens end up obeying and considering the leader as someone ideal for fear of being humiliated or even killed; in this way the hegemony of radical ideas is maintained, through fear and extortion.
One of the objectives of any society is to prevent these situations from happening again because the arrival of a dictatorship in power not only leads to the suppression of individual freedoms but also leads to thousands of deaths and disappearances.
