Words such as dictators, despots, totalitarians, fascists, autocrats, authoritarians and tyrants are used interchangeably to analyse or describe the acute abuse of power. Those descriptions, at the very basic level, invariably point to a circumstance where a leader or leaders usurp power in a dominant way, while ignoring the views and wishes of others. In addition, all of the abovementioned ignoble titles come along with some basic repulsive features; jailing and the execution of opponents, stifling free speech, stacking courts with political lackeys, emasculating Parliament, wanton propaganda with the complete disappearance of independent press and above all, a thin-skinned and petulant figurehead who despises critique or dissent. I find myself consistently guided on this topic by two of my favourite books; Hannah Arendt’s, ‘The Origins of Totalitarianism’ and Simon Montefiore’s, ‘The Court of the Red Tsar’. Anyone who has taken a cursory glance at the aforementioned works would be understandably alarmed and aghast by the description of completely democratic regimes that are the opposite of the concept of a dictatorship, for political purposes.

THE DANGERS
The word ‘dictator’ originates from the Latin term ‘dictare’, a judge in the Roman Republic temporarily invested with absolute power to execute a specific leadership purpose with gusto and vigour. Ever since its arrival in our modern lexicon, we have seen the worst manifestation of this concept in the most ignominious way. From Ivan ‘The Terrible’ to Kim Jong Un, the pantheon of dictators is running out of space. Be that as it may, the term has been inadvertently diluted and diminished for political purposes. While it may seem like good politics, there are dangers that lie within such a strategy. First, the bar is being dangerously lowered by the misapplication of the term to every flimsy circumstance that may not reflect an iota of what it is supposed to represent. Second, it obfuscates and confuses and allows the real dictators to point the finger at the democratic leader and takes attention away from the real threat. Third, the evils of that encompass this form of rule should never be taken lightly and it is double trouble when we blur this diabolic dispensation with magnanimous democratic rule.