Editing Dictator (section)

{{Short description|Political leader who possesses absolute power}}
{{Redirect|Dictators|the American band|The Dictators}}
{{For-multi|the ancient Roman title|Roman dictator|other uses}}
{{Pp-semi-indef|small=yes}}
[[File:Historical dictators.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|20th-century leaders typically described as dictators (''from left to right and top to bottom''): [[Joseph Stalin]] of the Soviet Union; [[Adolf Hitler]] of Nazi Germany; [[Augusto Pinochet]] of Chile; [[Mao Zedong]] of China; [[Benito Mussolini]] of Italy; and [[Kim Il Sung]] of North Korea.]]
[[File:Retrato de Julio César (26724093101) (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Julius Caesar]] outmaneuvered his opponents in ancient Rome to install himself as dictator for life.]]

A '''dictator''' is a political leader who possesses absolute [[Power (social and political)|power]]. A [[dictatorship]] is a state ruled by one dictator or by a [[polity]].<ref name="auto">{{Cite journal |date=July 2001 |title=Lessons in On-Line Reference Publishing''Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary''. Merriam-Webster''Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus''. Merriam-Webster''Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia''. Merriam-Webster |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/603287 |journal=The Library Quarterly |volume=71 |issue=3 |pages=392–399 |doi=10.1086/603287 |s2cid=148183387 |issn=0024-2519|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The word originated as the title of a [[Roman dictator]] elected by the [[Roman Senate]] to rule the republic in [[Justitium|times of emergency]].<ref name="auto"/> Like the terms "''[[tyrant]]''" and "''[[Autocracy|autocrat]]''", ''dictator'' came to be used almost exclusively as a non-titular term for oppressive rule. In modern usage the term ''dictator'' is generally used to describe a leader who holds or abuses an extraordinary amount of personal power. 

Dictatorships are often characterised by some of the following: suspension of elections and [[civil liberties]]; proclamation of a [[state of emergency]]; [[rule by decree]]; [[political repression|repression of political opponents]]; not abiding by the procedures of the [[rule of law]]; and the existence of a [[cult of personality]] centered on the leader. Dictatorships are often [[one-party state|one-party]] or [[dominant-party system|dominant-party]] states.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Papaioannou|first=Kostadis|date=2015|title=The Dictator Effect: How long years in office affect economic development|journal=Journal of Institutional Economics|volume=11|issue=1|pages=111–139|doi=10.1017/S1744137414000356|author2=vanZanden, Jan Luiten|hdl=1874/329292 |s2cid=154309029|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title=Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development|last=Olson|first=Mancur|date=1993|journal=[[American Political Science Review]]|volume=87|issue=3|pages=567–576|doi=10.2307/2938736|jstor=2938736|s2cid=145312307 }}</ref> A wide variety of leaders coming to power in different kinds of regimes, such as one-party or dominant-party states and civilian governments under a personal rule, have been described as dictators.
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