Forms of Government Other than Democracy: Dictatorship

Related Articles and Links

It is advisable to read the related articles at the links given below for better understanding of the subject:

1. Democracy and other forms of Government  (http://shyam.bhatawdekar.net/index.php/2012/10/25/political-management-democracy-and-various-other-forms-of-government/)

2. Monarchy (http://shyam.bhatawdekar.net/index.php/2012/11/01/political-management-forms-of-government-other-than-democracy-monarchy/)

3. Communism (http://shyam.bhatawdekar.net/index.php/2012/11/01/forms-of-government-other-than-democracy-communism/)

Dictatorship

In modern terms dictatorship is the major form of autocratic governments. In dictatorship the state is controlled or ruled by an individual called dictator. Absolute power rests with the dictator.

The power by a dictator is obtained by any one of the following ways:

1. Inherited as a family legacy.

2. Through force or coup often committed by head of the military of a state.

3. Handed over constitutionally to a person as in emergency in democratic system.

4. By suspending existing constitution after being handed over the office constitutionally and taking over as a dictator.

In dictatorship the power absolutely rests with the dictator unrestricted by law, constitution or other political or social considerations. There is no place of any opposition or public participation in dictatorship. It's exactly opposite of democracy. Individual ideology or often the tyranny of the dictator prevails.

Most the dictators have been notorious for their tyranny, power-mongering, greed and other idiosyncrasies. Dictators have been responsible for killing over 100 million people on earth.

Some of the notorious dictators we know: Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Stalin (USSR), Hirohito (Japan), Mao (China), Kim II Sung (North Korea), Amin (Uganda), Hussein (Iraq), Pol Pot (Cambodia), Mubarak (Egypt).

While most of the dictators were infamous for their cruelty, the Italian revolutionary who became dictator of Sicily was quite popular ruler in Italy and accepted as such internationally. But this was an exception.

Most of the tyrannical dictators met their deaths unsung and in shame.

A large majority of the countries with dictatorship types of governments ruled by dictators are striving to abolish the dictatorship and moving to some other forms of governments, mostly the democracy i.e. peoples' government.

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Forms of Government Other than Democracy: Communism

Communism is a social, economic and political system that is different from democracy, capitalism, dictatorship or monarchy.

The doctrine of communism was conceived by Karl Marx- a nineteenth century German scholar. It came to be known as Marxism. Later on Marxism was modified by other practitioners of communism. The prominent modifiers were: Vladimir Lenin of Soviet Russia (Marxism-Leninism), Mao Tse Tung of China (Maoism), Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia (Titoism) etc.

Communism majorly took its root in nineteenth century and then revolutions took place in twentieth century to establish governments guided by the communist thoughts. Soviet Union, People's Republic of China and Republic of Cuba were the early states to adopt communism. Communist governments took control in some more countries like Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Albania, North Korea etc.

Additionally, through democratic elections in some countries like Bolivia and Venezuela communism inspired governments got elected in twentieth and twenty first centuries.

As per Kark Marx, communism emerges and finally matures from the development of the productive forces that leads to a superabundance of material wealth, allowing for distribution based on need and social relations based on freely-associated individuals.

As per communism, the working class, referred to as the proletariat, is the main producer of wealth in society. In capitalistic model this working class is exploited by the capitalist class. Therefore, emphasis of communism is to establish a society without class divisions.

Communism thus ultimately aims at classless society.

Under communism, all property and all means of production are owned in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community rather than by individuals.

However, in practice, a single authoritarian and self-perpetuating political party controls both the political and economic systems.

So in practice, communism could not be implemented and established in its purest theoretical conceptualizations. Because of the way communism came to be practised its impact on improving socio-economic and political system was not promising enough.

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union. His reforms brought in glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) and he relaxed government control. East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary abandoned communism by 1990. Soviet Union itself dissolved in 1991 and resultant Russia quit communism.

People's Republic of China also reassessed various aspects of the Maoist type of communism. as a result, in China, Laos and Vietnam the communist governments reduced their control on the economy facilitating a stimulus to economic growth. In 1978, Deng Xiaoping brought economic reforms in China. With such changes, China managed to bring down the poverty from 53% in the Mao era to 6% in 2001. China also established market led special economic zones free from government control.

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Forms of Government Other than Democracy: Monarchy

Monarchy is one of the earliest and ancient forms of government that existed in almost all the countries of the world prior to the relatively recent emergence of democracy, communism and military dictatorship etc as alternate systems of government.

Monarchy is rulership over a political entity (state or nation or a set of states or nations) by one individual (i.e. undivided sovereignty) who inherits his or her position by hereditary succession, is crowned and reigns for life (until death or abdication).

Ancient monarchies appear to have been elective originally but dynasties (hereditary succession) became customary in times to come.

The ruler is called a monarch or king (male) or queen (female). So monarchy is a government by a monarch.

People who were ruled were made to believe that the monarch exercised authority by the will of god rather than by the choice of the people.

Therefore, the powers of a monarch were unlimited- the monarchical absolutism. The 16th and 17th centuries mark the height of absolute monarchy. Its theoretical justification in the doctrine of divine right was exemplified by Henry VII and Henry VIII of England, Louis XIV of France and Catherine II of Russia.

Deification (considering that monarch was a god sent or was an agent of divine will) was general in ancient Egypt, Middle East and Asia and it was also practiced during certain periods in ancient Greece and Rome.

There were certain exceptions to monarchical absolutism e.g. Britain’s parliament was able to restrict the sovereign's freedom of action, particularly through the Magna Carta (1215) and the Bill of Rights (1689).

The Glorious Revolution in England (1688) and the French Revolution (1789) gave absolute monarchy a severe blow. World War I effectively destroyed what remained of it.

In some cases, the monarchy developed into the constitutional monarchy in Western Europe, though absolute (or near-absolute) monarchies continue to exist in Middle East. Notable constitutional monarchies include Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Thailand.

Currently, 44 nations in the world have monarchs as heads of state, 16 of which are Commonwealth territories that recognize Queen/King of Great Britain as their head of state. The historical form of absolute monarchy is retained only in Brunei, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland and Vatican City.

Over the past 200 years democratic self-government has been established and extended to such an extent that a true functioning monarchy is a rare occurrence in both East and West except for certain exceptions cited earlier.

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