Dictatorship
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A dictatorship is a political system in which a single person (the dictator) has absolute power, because no legal process exists by which the leader can be removed from office against his will. Many ancient political systems were effectively dictatorships, although the term is usually used only in the modern context, where democracy exists as an alternative.
Examples
- China
- North Korea
- The former Soviet Union
- Nazi Germany
- Communist Romania
- Cuba
- Chile (under General Augusto Pinochet)
- Cambodia under Pol Pot
Dictatorship in Fiction
Most often for dystopian or bleak futures, dictatorships are the governing systems, such as in Ayn Rand's Anthem and Atlas Shrugged, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 or Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.