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Dictatorship facts for kids

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Grand People's Study House 08
Portraits of Kim Jong-il and his father in the Grand People's Study House in Pyongyang, North Korea.

A dictatorship is a country where one person or political party has the power to do whatever they want. The ruler is called a dictator. In a dictatorship, people usually do not have many rights or much freedom.

Dictators come to power for a number of reasons or social problems such as massive unemployment, inflation, and unrest among the population. Dictators are normally backed by powerful groups, such as landowners, private company owners, bank owners and in some cases institutions like the Roman Catholic Church to put in place law and order by force. This force is generally directed at the poorer parts of society, such as unemployed workers, ethnic minorities, working class areas and shanty towns. Examples of this are the dictatorships in Latin America.

Dictators normally need to do a number of things to put in place their dictatorships: they need to get rid of their opponents (which may be political or religious) - some are imprisoned, exiled (sent outside their country) or killed. Dictators will then need to prohibit (or not allow) political parties that oppose their rule. They will confiscate the political parties' property or offices and such things. Dictators may suppress or persecute some religious groups or institutions. Dictators will also need to undo or close down democratic institutions such as parliament and in some cases the congress. Some social organizations, such as civil rights groups, human rights organisations, legal aid centres, students' unions, teachers' federations, trade or workers unions are also undone and those who persist with such activities may be killed. Dictators will normally rewrite an existing constitution or put in place a completely new one. This makes their power constitutional (which then cannot be disputed). Dictators then maintain their rule with state terrorism, which normally involves a secret police, death squads, random or night curfew, indefinite arrest without trial and a network of torture centres and concentration camps. Some dictatorships create a fictional (or non existent) internal (inside their country) enemy which they claim to be at war with to justify (give reason for) their use of much military violence against a whole unarmed population.

A dictatorship that is ruled by soldiers is called a military dictatorship or junta. An absolute monarchy (the system where there are Kings and Queens who have full power over their country) can be considered to be a dictatorship, but are usually not called dictators. A dictatorship is usually not liked by the people, because most don't like to be dictated around. Most dictators are selfish and rule over the people just for power.

Some dictators have included:

Images for kids

  • Naples Fascist rally on 24 October 1922 (2)

    Benito Mussolini in the March on Rome that installed him as dictator in Italy

  • Marines-march-on-Government-Building-Seoul 1962-05-17

    Soldiers occupy Seoul, South Korea as part of the May 16 coup that placed General Park Chung Hee in power

  • RIAN archive 851899 Pioneers and schoolchildren greet delegates and guests of XVII convention of trade unions of the USSR

    An assembly at the Kremlin Palace of Congresses in Moscow, Soviet Union

  • The statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang (april 2012)

    Citizens of North Korea bow to statues of former dictators Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in 2012.

  • King Abdulaziz with Prince Faisal and Prince Saud

    King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia with two of his sons in 1953.

  • Santaanna1

    Military dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna wearing a Mexican military uniform

  • Bundesarchiv Bild 102-04062A, Nürnberg, Reichsparteitag, SA- und SS-Appell

    The Nuremberg rallies celebrated fascism and the rule of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.

  • Communist rally in Meskel Square

    A communist rally in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during the country's period of Marxist dictatorship, the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

  • 1974.-Vizita-in-Siria.-Sosirea-la-Damasc-1024x789 (cropped)

    Nicolae Ceaușescu (left) attending a stage event with Hafiz al-Assad (right), during his state visit to Ba'athist dictatorship of Syria

  • Alexander Lukashenko in a meeting with Bashar al-Assad in December 2003 (2) (twice-cropped)

    Meeting between Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and Belarusian autocrat Alexander Lukashenko in 2003

  • GDP per capita vs type of political regime, OWID

    GDP per capita vs type of political regime. Most countries with dictatorships are poor except for some petrostates

  • Wahlzettel-3.-Reich

    An electoral slip in the 1936 German parliamentary election. Adolf Hitler and his inner circle are the only option.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Dictadura para niños

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