Some so-called "benevolent dictators" may be viewed as beneficial and their leadership seen as a "necessary evil". Mao Zedong (; December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a... Adolf Hitler (German: [ˈadɔlf ˈhɪtlɐ] (listen); 20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was a German... Pol Pot (born Saloth Sâr; 19 May 1925 – 15 April 1998) was a Cambodian politician who led... Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; 18 December [O.S. FD: Putin comes to mind. In terms of China, only one man really sees through it and that’s Lin Biao, a general who was more or less eliminated when he dies in a plane accident in September 1971 – it puts an end to the role of the army in the cultural revolution. At the end of his life, Stalin was probably more paranoid than ever, and continued the purges, ordering even larger statues of himself. Of course, there are many techniques – and I go through many of them with my eight dictators. Here is my bully pulpit where I will tell the people of America and the rest of the world how to run their governments and how to get their economies going strong. He’s got a never-ending insatiable appetite for more distinctions – university degrees and honours, he collects them very much like a stamp collector. EE: So as well as being reliant on many subordinates who supported their image, the figures in your book, there are crossovers and relationships between them. Of course they need the police; they need the praetorian guard; they need to rely on armed forces (torturers, spies, informers, you name it)… but the cult of personality helps a great deal. So how does Stalin get around this? Did you find any other commonalities with what brought these cults to an end? And then he writes in his own private diary that the Great Leap Forward is a “complete disaster”; Lin Biao clearly understands how duplicitous his master really is. If you find yourself approaching someone with a malevolent look in her eye, best to run the other way. A British colonial official called Lord Hailey said in the 1940s "A new conception of our relationship...may emerge as part of the movement for the betterment of the backward peoples of the world." You will shortly receive a receipt for your purchase via email. I say ‘man’, because they are invariably men. It may not seem to us like that; it might seem that democracy is on the attack. It’s a very basic point. FD: They work at it tirelessly, from the very beginning. EE: You mentioned, as we’ve been talking, how they edited their own image and a massive part of this was control of the press…. This page has been accessed 1,101,204 times. How do we see that playing out in the figures featured in your book? How do dictators gain power? All of these being the classic 20th century dictators. So Mussolini really must be the first one in there, although one might say he’s only half a dictator – his image has to compete with that of the pope and of course the king. When Mussolini seizes power with his march on Rome in 1922, he is but one of several quite determined fascist leaders. And, of course, he is behind his own image; he hires a photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, to produce photos that project sheer strength of character and iron determination. Neither Mao nor Stalin will react when somebody opposes them; they know how to bide their time; they know how to calculate – in a very cold manner – and they know how to strike like a cobra when they need to. The 1971 Constitutional Amendments introduced a rotating Presidency consisting of eight members, one from each Republic and Province, instead of the classic centralized-style office of President which was in place before decentralization. These are replaced by massive ministries of propaganda. Its main objective is transforming the country into a knowledge-based middle-income country, thereby reducing poverty, health problems and making the nation united and democratic. So he assumes the air of a very unassuming country doctor, a man who wouldn’t harm a fly, who is devoted to the welfare of his subjects. You can read Mein Kampf, for instance. FD: Ultimately dictators and students of power. Could you talk about this ‘cult of personality’ and how it links these eight figures together? “Donald Trump would like to be a dictator… 6] 1878... Idi Amin Dada Oumee (; c. 1925 – 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer who served as... Kim Jong-il (officially transcribed Kim Jong Il; Korean: 김정일; Korean pronunciation:... Kim Jong-un (officially transcribed Kim Jong Un; Korean: 김정은; Korean pronunciation:... Kim Il-sung (officially transcribed Kim Il Sung; English pronunciation: ; Korean: 김일성; Korean... Ivan IV Vasilyevich (; Russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич, tr. Security forces were alleged to have killed wounded civilians by putting them alive in refrigerators in hospital morgues, it said. How to use malevolent in a sentence. FD: Well, one skill they have is that they are great actors. Now it's come to our attention that President Obama is having his midwest bus tour on a, A few tips on how to "convince" Assad to step down, asking Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down. And he reigns supreme; he feels secure enough at the very end of his life to somehow reign in the cult of personality. Some of them are very talented – and not just organisational skills. Stalin and Mao die in their beds. A benevolent dictator may allow for some civil liberties or democratic decision-making to exist, such as through public referenda or elected representatives with limited power, and often makes preparations for a transition to genuine democracy during or after their term. EE: Well we won’t inflict that on you! You have successfully linked your account! List RulesNo fictional people, only dictators that existed in real life, Birthplace: Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia, Birthplace: Vyatskoye, Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, Birthplace: Pyongyang, Pyongan, North Korea, Birthplace: Lisala, Democratic Republic of the Congo. This refers to any years in office as a head of state, government or the like before their dictatorship was established. And again and again, he works at building up his own image as a charismatic leader. Give positive votes to the dictators you believe to be truly evil. I think this is probably one of the great attributes of dictators – that they trust no one. So yes, Xi Jinping has his little red book. In the end they tend to make all the decisions themselves, with fatal consequences for huge numbers of people. Hitler was appointed chancellor in 1933 and began the Third Reich. This perception has changed significantly in anti-communist circles following the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the examination of various war crimes committed by the Yugoslav Partisans in the aftermath of World War II and the League of Communists of Yugoslavia during its rule, namely the Bleiburg repatriations, the Foibe massacres, Tezno massacre, Macelj massacre, Kočevski Rog massacre, Barbara Pit massacre and the communist purges in Serbia in 1944–45. [20] Ever since Lee's resignation as Prime Minister in 1990 and his death in 2015, Singapore has undergone democratization with improved rule of law. [2] He was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad. In the case of Adolf Hitler, it is said of him that he has an instinct from the very beginning that tells him who he can trust and who he can’t. The voice of the dictator frequently, but not always, will pursue you wherever you go – certainly in the case of Germany, with loudspeaker pillars erected in cities and mobile ones taken to the countryside. Once abroad, Trotsky starts writing about Stalin as a rather devious, underhanded, mediocre character. But the point I’m trying to make is that some of them, the ones who tend to fail, in particular Ceaușescu, start believing in their own cult. Was there anyone there who you wish you could have included or were these men self-selecting for your book? The malevolent careers of eight 20th-century leaders explained. The modern usage of the term 'dictator' developed largely in response to instances of autocratic rule in republics, so traditional monarchs are not usually described as dictators in historical commentary. On the Origin of malevolent EE: Can you speak a little bit more about that? But not so Duvalier, he does not have any party at all. where authoritarian leadership was the norm. Despite the accusation of political repression, he is considered very successful in transforming Rwanda. He was the absolute dictator of Germany from 1934 to 1945. He’s very good at presenting this image of a man that is rather simple and quite approachable… they’re always very good at controlling their emotions. In the Spanish language, the pun word dictablanda is sometimes used for a dictatorship conserving some of the liberties and mechanisms of democracy. There is a good list of people. The same is truth of Mao. But not so if you are a Marxist Leninist. The phrase originated in 1995 with reference to Guido van Rossum, creator of the Python programming language. Here is a comprehensive, up-to-date list of the current world dictators and authoritarian regimes. Singapore has thus been dubbed as one of the Four Asian Tigers. So, again and again, with each dictator it becomes very clear that they are ultimately responsible for building up their own cult. [30] Under his rule, Rwanda is also called the "Singapore of Africa" due to his effort modernizing post-war Rwanda which he also dubbed as "African Lee Kuan Yew". The Iraqi dictator who came to power in 1979 is estimated to be responsible for about 500,000 to 1 million deaths, of which the Kurds account for about 70,000 to 300,000. Mengistu seizes power but doesn’t start building up a Marxist party until many years later – some 10 years after the revolution, so there is always an exception to the rule. In the case of Mussolini, he’s so obsessed with control that after a couple of years he is in control of about half a dozen ministries. Now the terror, we know – the concentration camps; the secret police; the knock-on-the-door in the middle of the night; the atrocious crimes against humanity – but I think image, in particular the ‘cult of personality’, we tend to overlook a bit – even though if you look at the 20th century, literally hundreds of millions of people cheered their own dictators, even as they were led down the road to serve them.