6.3.1.3  Dictatorships                                                  

(This is an archived extract from the book Patterns of Power: Edition 2)

Dictators justify their seizure of power by declaring a need for change; examples include:

·      Military coups, such as those in Iraq[1] and Pakistan[2] in the 20th century, often claim a need to impose law and order; they can be associated with economic dissatisfaction among the population.

·      Some coups d'état are justified purely by claims that the current incumbent is performing badly.

·      Nationalist struggles, like those which expelled the colonial powers in Africa, are waged in the name of freedom.

Weber referred to the "charismatic authority" exerted by a dictator,[3] whose legitimacy is granted by virtue of people's respect for the leader and enthusiasm for the cause.  The new governments then have to install institutions to maintain stability.[4]  Continued legitimacy depends upon being seen to govern in the interests of the people.  

It is difficult for a dictatorship to achieve a smooth handover of power at the end of the leader's term of office.  A coup d'état has been the solution in many cases, but that can lead to violence.  The best hope is for a peaceful transition to an elected presidency.

© PatternsofPower.org, 2014                                                 



[1] A paper entitled Iraq, past, present and future: a thoroughly-modern mandate? by Beverly Milton-Edwards was available in February 2014 at http://www.historyandpolicy.org/papers/policy-paper-13.html.  It included a list of military coups and the rise of Saddam Hussein, in section 4.

[2] The LSE paper 09-92, entitled Guarding the State or Protecting the Economy? and subtitled The Economic Factors of Pakistan's Military Coups, was available in February 2014 at http://www.lse.ac.uk/internationalDevelopment/pdf/WP/WP92.pdf.  It concluded that there was a correlation between low economic growth rates and the incidence of military coups in Pakistan in 1958, 1965, 1977 and 1999.

[3] Charisma is one of Max Weber’s previously quoted “three inner justifications, hence basic legitimations of domination” in paras. 7-10 of his lecture Politics as a Vocation, which was available in May 2014 at http://anthropos-lab.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Weber-Politics-as-a-Vocation.pdf:

“There is the authority of the extraordinary and personal gift of grace (charisma), the absolutely personal devotion and personal confidence in revelation, heroism, or other qualities of individual leadership. This is 'charismatic' domination, as exercised by the prophet or--in the field of politics--by the elected war lord, the plebiscitarian ruler, the great demagogue, or the political party leader.”

[4] Max Weber, in his book Economy and Society describes the process of institutionalisation which tends to follow an authoritarian seizure of power when those involved in government seek to stabilise their positions (chap. III, part v: The Routinization of Charisma, pp. 246ff).  An extract was available in February 2014 at Google books [by searching for ‘routinization’]: http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Economy_and_society.html.