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  • North Korea’s constitution describes its government as anindependent socialist

  • state”, however, many other sources, including the CIA World Factbook, list North Korea as

  • a “one-man dictatorship”. So, what is a dictatorship? And how many countries are

  • still run by dictators?

  • A dictatorship is a form of authoritarian government in which complete power over the

  • people and state is held by one person or one political entity. The word is often used

  • interchangeably with terms liketyranny”, “monarchy”, “totalitarianism”, “autocracy”,

  • despotism”, and even sometimes with words likerepublicanddemocracy”. For

  • example, North Korea’s full title is theDemocratic People’s Republic of North

  • Korea”.

  • Modern dictatorships hardly ever refer to themselves as such. Often, they will assume

  • the mask of a democracy, complete with phony elections, in order to give legitimacy to

  • their rule. Just look at the recentelectionsin Zimbabwe and Syria for example. Once in

  • power, dictators protect their station with military action, restrictions on personal

  • freedoms, propaganda and even state-sponsored terrorism. Hallmark signs of an authoritarian

  • regime include: state-controlled media, rampant corruption and cronyism, and a sizeable gap

  • between the wealthy elite and the poor. Often, the loose term ofdictatorshipis applied

  • to any country where civil liberties are suppressed, and all the power is concentrated on one leader

  • or a single political unit.

  • How many of these dictatorships exist in the world? It’s hard to say. The majority of

  • national governments operate on a spectrum betweenconstitutional democracies”,

  • like the United States, and complete dictatorships, like North Korea. There are many nations that

  • fall in between. However, the Economist Intelligence Unit estimates that as of 2014, 52 countries

  • are ruled by authoritarian regimes. Places like China, Cuba, Russia, Syria and Zimbabwe

  • are on this list. And there are many more.

  • Unfortunately, dictatorships grew stronger in 2014, according to a watchdog organization,

  • Freedom House. Their report, released in 2015, notes that more than half of the world’s

  • countries are consideredpartly freeornot free”, and there was an overall

  • decline inglobal political rights and civil libertieslast year.

  • However, there are also studies that show most people want a government with democratic

  • values. In the future, trends towards globalization, higher education, and a growing middle class

  • may be the key to eliminating authoritarian governments once

  • and for all.

North Korea’s constitution describes its government as anindependent socialist

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