Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Dictator |
DictatorNoun1. Someone who rules unconstrained by law. 2. Behaves like a tyrant. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "dictator" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Etymology: Dictator \Dic*ta"tor\, noun. [Latin expression]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | DICTATOR, n. The chief of a nation that prefers the pestilence of despotism to the plague of anarchy. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Public Administration | A person who reads aloud or speaks words for another person to write down. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
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.
In modern times, the term "dictator" is generally used to describe a nation's Head of Government 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). Other dictators create a family dictatorship, in which one of their family members (usually a son) assumes leadership of the nation upon the reigning dictator's death. These types of dictatorships rarely last longer than two generations. Often the dictator's heir is unexperienced in governance, and is quickly deposed by rival factions that had been supresssed under the previous regime.
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.
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A legal innovation of the Roman Republic, the dictator (Latin for "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.The Dictator in Modern Times
Many dictators wear elaborate military uniforms with many decorations. Pictured here is 'Field Marshal' Idi Amin Dada of UgandaTypes of Dictatorships
The Benevolent Dictator?
Famous Dictators: A Brief Selection
Related articles
Roman dictator
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Dictator."
Synonyms: DictatorSynonyms: authoritarian (n), potentate (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Director | Statesman, strategist, legislator, lawgiver, politician, statist, statemonger; Minos, Draco; arbiter; (judge); boss, political dictator. |
Master | Noun: master, padrone; lord, lord paramount; commander, commandant; captain; chief, chieftain; sirdar, sachem, sheik, head, senior, governor, ruler, dictator; leader; (director); boss,Noun: master, padrone; lord, lord paramount; commander, commandant; captain; chief, chieftain; sirdar, sachem, sheik, head, senior, governor, ruler, dictator; leader; (director); boss, cockarouse, sagamore, werowance. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Well Marcy, that's because Cuba already has a dictator with a beard (One World; writing credit: Carl-Christian Demke) Everybody votes for a dictator. (The Prisoner; writing credit: Dennis Marks) | |
Movie/TV Titles | I Aliki dictator (1972) Cupido Dictator (1963) The Great Dictator (1940) Romania: Death of a Dictator (1990) Eye of the Dictator (1988) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | USS Nevada (ex-Neshaminy) laid up at the station pier, circa 1871-1873, with USS Dictator "in ordinary" at the right. The original photograph was published as a stereograph pair by E. Ayer, Norwich, Connecticut. Credit: NAVY. |  | Two-page spread of line engravings, published in "Harper's Weekly", 3 February 1866. U.S. ships depicted include (at left, top to bottom): Dictator, Manayunk, Ozark, Onondaga, and Roanoke; (in center, top to bottom): Stonewall (ex CSS Stonewall), New Ironsides with Monadnock, and the interior of a monitor's Ericsson turret with two XV-inch Dahlgren guns; (at right, top to bottom): Weehawken, Atlanta (ex CSS Atlanta), Yazoo, Tennessee (ex CSS Tennessee), and Dunderberg. Credit: NAVY. |
 | Dictator and aide review Moscow May Day celebration. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | President Machado named dictator in Cuba. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Soviet dictator in action. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Mortar dictator. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Petersburg, Va. The "Dictator," a 13-inch mortar, in position. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | Portugal | The military coup in 1974 was a result of the colonial wars and removed the authoritarian dictator, Marcello Caetano, from power. (references) |
Panama | On May 2, 1999, Mireya Moscoso, the widow of former President Arnulfo Arias Madrid, defeated PRD candidate Martin Torrijos, son of the late dictator. (references) | |
Costa Rica | This began a trend continued until today with only two lapses: in 1917-19, Federico Tinoco ruled as a dictator, and, in 1948, Jose Figueres led an armed uprising in the wake of a disputed presidential election. (references) | |
Human Rights | Paraguay | Former military dictator Alfredo Stroessner was named as a defendant in the action. (references) |
Ethiopia | Of the 5,198 defendants, the Government is trying 2,952 in absentia, including former dictator Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, who remained in exile in Zimbabwe. (references) | |
Haiti | A number of national human rights organizations criticized the arrest, calling it illegal, arbitrary, and reminiscent of the actions of former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier's secret police. (references) | |
Political Economy | Benin | President Kerekou, who ruled the country as a Socialist military dictator from 1972 to 1989, succeeded his democratically elected predecessor in 1996 and continued the civilian, democratic rule begun in the 1990-91 constitutional process that ended his previous reign. (references) |
Suriname | The first Venetiaan Government had reformed the military in 1995-96 by purging military officers and supporters of former dictator Desi Bouterse, who ruled the country in the 1980's. Bouterse's NDP won 10 seats in the National Assembly in 2000, 1 of which he occupies. (references) | |
Panama | Since the U.S. military intervention that removed dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989, Panama has passed through a generally successful process of democratic institution building that has been validated by two national referendums and two general elections, the latest in May 1999. Panama's next general election is scheduled to take place in 2004, although referendums on constitutional issues remain a possibility. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Rush Limbaugh | Of course, if we left the people of Iraq under the command of a brutal dictator, it would be because we didn't care how much non-white people suffered. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
George Bush | 1989-1993 | But the world has to wonder what the dictator of Iraq is thinking. |
George W. Bush | 2001-2005 | The dictator of Iraq is a student of Stalin, using murder as a tool of terror and control, within his own cabinet, within his own army, and even within his own family. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Dictator" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.92% of the time. "Dictator" is used about 278 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 98.92% | 275 | 17,685 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.72% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Noun (common) | 0.36% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 278 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "dictator": political dictator. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "dictator": dictator-by-consent. | |
Ending with "dictator": ex-dictator, god-dictator, mad-dictator. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "dictator"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | diktator. (various references) | |
Arabic | حاكم مطلق (autocrat, despot, overman), المملي, دكتاتور. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | диктатор. (various references) | |
Chinese | 独裁者, 獨裁者 . (various references) | |
Czech | diktátor. (various references) | |
Dutch | dictator. (various references) | |
Esperanto | diktatoro. (various references) | |
Farsi | فرمانروای مطلق (Prince), خودکامه , دیکتاتور. (various references) | |
Finnish | diktaattori. (various references) | |
French | dictateur. (various references) | |
German | Diktator. (various references) | |
Greek | δικτάτορασ, δικτάτορας. (various references) | |
Hebrew | "יקטטור, רו"ן (despot, tyrant). (various references) | |
Hungarian | diktátor (autocrat). (various references) | |
Icelandic | einræðisherra. (various references) | |
Indonesian | diktator (dictatorship). (various references) | |
Italian | dittatore. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 独裁者 (despot). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | どくさいしゃ (despot). (various references) | |
Korean | 독재자. (various references) | |
Manx | jaghteyr, ard-smaghteyder, ard-reillagh (dictatorial). (various references) | |
Papiamen | diktador, diktadó. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ictatorday.(various references) | |
Portuguese | ditador. (various references) | |
Romanian | dictator. (various references) | |
Russian | диктатор. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | diktator. (various references) | |
Spanish | dictador. (various references) | |
Swedish | diktator. (various references) | |
Thai | ผู้เผ"็จการ. (various references) | |
Turkish | dikte eden kimse, diktatör (autocrat, big brother, Caesar, fuhrer, strong man, warlord), díktatör, yazdıran kimse. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | диктатор (autocrat, kaiser). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | người đọc chính tả, kẻ độc t i. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | dictator. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "dictator": dictatorial, dictatorially, dictatorialness, dictatorialnesses, dictators, dictatorship, dictatorships. (additional references) | |
| |
"Dictator" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: dicitrato, dictat, dictater, Dikshitar, distator, distazo, Dittborn, Pistacor. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "dictator" (pronounced diktā"ter or di"ktāter) |
| 4 | -t ā" t er | stater. |
| 3 | -ā" t er | cater, crater, creator, curator, debater, deflator, equator, Frater, freighter, gaiter, gator, grater, greater, hater, inflator, later, Pater, Plater, Prater, rater, skater, Slater, straighter, traitor, translator, Viator, vindicator, waiter. |
| 5 | -k t ā t er | spectator. |
| 4 | -t ā t er | rehabilitator. |
| 3 | -ā t er | impersonator, initiator, motivator, narrator, vibrator. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-d-i-o-r-t-t" | |
-1 letter: carotid, citator, ricotta. | |
-2 letters: adroit, aortic, cottar, dacoit, tricot. | |
-3 letters: acrid, actor, aroid, attic, caird, coati, coria, cotta, daric, datto, dicot, dicta, ditto, droit, octad, ottar, radio, ratio, tacit, tardo, taroc, tarot, toric, tract, trait, triac, triad. | |
-4 letters: acid, adit, airt, arco, arid, cadi, caid, card, cart, ciao, coat, coda, coir, cord, dart, dato. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-d-i-o-r-t-t" | |
+1 letter: dictators. | |
+2 letters: contradict, detraction. | |
+3 letters: artiodactyl, contradicts, deactivator, decapitator, decorticate, detractions, dictatorial, directorate, distraction, hydrostatic. | |
+4 letters: artiodactyls, catadioptric, contradicted, contradictor, deactivators, decapitators, decorticated, decorticates, decorticator, dictatorship, dilatometric, directorates, distractions, fractionated, hydrostatics, indoctrinate, privatdocent, ratiocinated, transduction. | |
+5 letters: accreditation, contrabandist, contradicting, contradiction, contradictors, contradictory, decorticating, decortication, decorticators, decrepitation, dictatorially, dictatorships, documentarist, indoctrinated, indoctrinates, indoctrinator, privatdocents, radioactivity, sacerdotalist, tetrachloride, transductions, trisoctahedra. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Quotations: Spoken 10. Quotations: Speeches 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Translations: Ancient 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
