Dictatorship
Topic: Democracy: Forms of Government, Principles and Outcomes · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 9 "From the Rulers to the Ruled: Types of Governments"
Meaning
A dictatorship is rule by one person or a small group with absolute power. No constitution, law, free election or opposition can check that power. The ruler cannot be removed by ordinary people through peaceful means. A dictatorship often takes away rights and crushes differences in society.
Example
Adolf Hitler took power in Germany in 1933. His regime carried out the Holocaust, which killed at least six million Jews along with Roma and others, and he started World War II (1939–45). Idi Amin ruled Uganda from 1971 to 1979 and expelled its Asians in 1972, including people of Indian origin.
Don't confuse with
- Totalitarianism: the extreme form of dictatorship, in which the ruler controls even private life through ideology, propaganda and terror.
- Authoritarianism: power that answers to no one and limited freedoms, but without seeking total control.
Related concepts
- Absolute monarchy
- Constitutional monarchy
- Totalitarianism
- Authoritarianism
- Oligarchy
- Plutocracy
- Technocracy