Outside of fringe extremist political groups, most people tend to agree that living in a dictatorship and dictators as a whole are not great. Indeed, many brutally oppress, murder and rob the people they claim to serve.
Yet a quick look at the dictators of the world and of history, many reign for several decades, often up until their deaths. Very few are deposed. So if they are such brutal and such horrendous human beings, how do they manage to stay in power for so long?
International Support
Interestingly, of the 190 or so countries in the world (estimates vary depending on what you’re classing as a “country”), 52 of them are considered dictatorships, most of which are in Africa, Asia and South America.
But they all seem to be somewhat friendly with each other and often are major traidng partners of one another.
Despite being known as the “Hermit Kingdom” and a state policy of self-reliance (juche) North Korea is incredibly friendly with China, also considered a dictatorship. Indeed, if China were to cut off trade with North Korea, most of the population would starve to death.
Aside from often trading with each other for they can’t produce themselves, dictators also arm one another, especially if they are neighbors. And as with seemingly everything dictators do (as we’ll see), this isn’t done without a reason.
Always frightened of losing their power, dictators arm their fellow dictators to prevent the domino effect.
The belief among dictators in a close geographical area is that if one of them falls to revolution, they will be the next to fall. Something that’s the thing of nightmares for dictators. The Arab Spring of recent history is the best example of this.
So even if they disagree on many areas, sending troops, arms and munitions to a dictator in a country bordering theirs, experiencing a revolution is a necessary measure for another dictator.
Whilst most dictatorships ally themselves with other dictatorships, some are backed by major world superpowers on the other side world, especially when precious natural resources like oil are involved.
Why else would the US have such a strong relationship with countries like the oil-rich Saudi Arabia despite their horrendous human rights records?
Centralize Power Around Them
In a true democracy – where the people hold all the power – there are multiple branches of government all of whom have large degrees of power, but all keep the other branches in check, so no one branch or person can ever get too powerful.
By its very definition, a dictator cannot allow this to happen. They can rival, or even overthrow him.
Though they could easily stack these other branches with people loyal to the dictator, there is always a chance that these people may not be as loyal as the dictator thought. Or maybe their lust for power could lead them to challenge the dictator.
Instead, dictators tend to dissolve the branches of government meant to keep them in check, and grant those powers to themselves.
Most often the first branch of government to be absorbed is the legislative branch. This gives the dictator the sole ability to introduce whatever laws they want without having to worry about the whole “getting it voted into law” problem.
These laws could be anything from minor “Don’t do this thing that affects almost nobody’s life” laws to “Don’t do X” laws, with “X” being something almost everyone does on a daily basis.
Arguably, this is the most important reason why dictators stay in power for so long: there’s simply no one who can fill the void without the country descending into chaos.
Deep down, whether they want to admit it or not, their people and the international community as a whole know this. If in doubt, just look at the post-Arab Spring Middle East for arguably the best example of this.
Fear Factor
Control of The Press
In 1597 Sir Francis Bacon wrote “knowledge itself is power”. Though he may have been talking about the power of God at the time, the mantra of “knowledge is power” has become one used by dictators of all political affiliations over literally hundreds of years.
And this makes sense, the way the majority of people find out what’s going on in the world is via the press, be it traditional-style newspapers, radio and television, or by modern means like the internet. Regardless, the principle is the same.
So to control it, you in effect control what your people know. And that’s something dictators crave.
If you take a look at how revolutions and counter-revolutions start, it’s often through articles that slate the government and talk about what they would do if they were in charge. Slowly but surely, these articles get more subversive and confrontational.
Then revolution happens.
Rather than allow these differing views to exist and potentially lead to a revolt, dictators often opt to have state-owned media that always portrays them in a good light. No matter what they do, they can never do any wrong in the media’s eyes.
Aside from just portraying them in a good light all the time, state-owned media also allows them to “expand their image” so to speak.
As the only media their people can legally consume, it makes sure that everyone in the country knows who the dictator is and has a positive view of them.
In those dictatorships where there is no state-owned media, such as in Nazi Germany, there is heavy censorship of the press and the dictator has a close relationship with the major media magnates in the country and their editors.
Often, it’s very much “You print what I say, or else…”
Cult of Personality
Scapegoating
Dictators often rise to power at a time of great social unrest. Often, the masses are fed up with the status quo and feel as though they are the ones losing out, whilst “someone else” reaps all the benefits.
Just think about how Adolf Hitler came to power. In 1933, Germany was reeling from the effects of the Great Depression and many Germans were simply out of work. They were angry and looking for someone to blame.
Perhaps due to his own hatred for them, or just tapping into pre-existing prejudices, Hitler began preaching about how it was in fact the Jews who were responsible for the Germans’ woes.
As wealthy business owners, doctors and lawyers, the Great Depression hadn’t hurt the Jews as badly as it had their German cousins. In many ways, they were the perfect group to blame…
Promising to punish the Jews for “profiting” off the backs of hard-working Germans, Hitler became quite popular and eventually became Chancellor and later Führer. Under Hitler, the Jews were then systematically rounded up and sent to the concentration camps.
And the groups dictators scapegoat don’t even need to be as obvious as Germans and Jews or rich and poor. In some places, it can be just because of the way you look, your accent or literally anything that makes you different.
But beyond helping them get into power in the first place, scapegoating helps dictators deflect any criticism of their leadership, whilst appearing plausible in the eye of the people.
A bad harvest? It’s the group we’re scapegoating’s fault, not ours. Economy going badly? It’s their fault, we’ll take more of their possessions and distribute them to the people. There are sanctions on your country for its human rights abuses? It’s a conspiracy by that group and the pawns they’ve duped.
The dictator has to be careful, however. No matter how much they may want to eradicate, expel or completely break that “out group” they scapegoat, they can never truly destroy them. In fact, they need them.
As long as there are people in that group to scapegoat, a dictator can do whatever he wants in the eyes of their people: as long as they are making the “oppressors” pay.
Help People
Whenever we hear about dictators, we tend to almost exclusively hear about the people they killed, maimed and robbed. And whilst we certainly shouldn’t overlook that, it’s a very binary way of thinking.
Though it may only be a few, there are always people who profit from dictatorship: industrialists under Hitler, bankers under Franco and real estate developers under Lee Kuan Yew. Even urbanites under Soviet rule “profited” from communism.
This isn’t an accident mind you, oh no, it’s very much deliberate on the part of the dictators.
One of the main reasons the people rise up against dictators is because of so-called “feel good” factors, namely the economy and how well off the people as a whole feel.
If a few do exceedingly well, the belief is that the majority of people will feel as though they too are profiting from the dictator’s leadership.
Though they live in appalling conditions, work seven days a week and have to next to no rights whatsoever, the people of North Korea don’t rise up against Kim Jong-Un. They feel that they are profiting from the Supreme Leader’s rule.
It doesn’t matter that it’s not true.
Combined with the dictator’s control of the press, it’s easy for them to spread the message that as a few are doing quite well, everyone else is too.
What do you think? Are there any other reasons why so many dictators stay in power for so long? Tell me in the comments!
Featured image courtesy of Nicor via Wikimedia Commons.