Who rules //
One Leader for All - Dictatorships
What is a dictatorship?
If you lived in a country run as a dictatorship, life would be very different to how it is in the UK. In a dictatorship there's just one party and one leader who makes all the decisions. If you don't agree with what's happening, you're best off keeping your opinion to yourself. If you don't, you could end up in prison or worse.
Although there are sometimes elections, don't expect to be able to get rid of a leader you don't like by voting for someone else. Voting won't necessarily be in secret, so the government will know if you're being disloyal and you could be punished.
Key Points
- The leader's power and control is more important than anything else.
- There is usually only one political party.
- There are elections, but only occasionally.
- The government controls the media.
- A military dictatorship uses military and police force to control people.
- There is no secret ballot.
Reality Bytes: Romania
Nicolae Ceausescu led Romania between 1965 and 1989. When he first came into power, industry was booming and continued to do so for a number of years. Ceausescu wanted this to continue - he wanted Romania to be a strong and independent country.
Goods such as TVs, washing machines and cars were produced in huge factories. To keep this up, a large workforce was needed for the factories. However, Romania was primarily an agricultural country and so most people were farmers.
Ceausescu decided that he would make people work in the factories and leave the farms and villages behind. Large urban areas were created and villages and farms destroyed. Money was borrowed from other countries to fund the building up of industry.
Paying back debts
Worldwide, prices for industrial goods began to fall. This led to Romania falling deep into debt. In 1981 Ceausescu decided that Romania needed to be pulled out of debt. He did this by rationing food and power and exporting most of Romania's food and fuel. This led to very poor standards of life, with most people starving and living in cold and dark conditions.
Power cuts were part of daily life and even hospitals were affected. The lack of petrol was a huge problem. Ambulances would only attend emergencies involving people under 70 years old in order to save fuel.
People were too frightened to stand up against the terrible things happening as Ceausescu had a network of secret police, the 'securitate', who would spy and arrest disloyal citizens. Ceausescu tried to hide the problems in the country by releasing films to the international media showing him visiting farms growing vegetables and fruit. The crops were in fact made of polystyrene and wood!
Revolution
Finally, in 1989, several groups of Romanians decided that they'd had enough. They protested and were promptly shot dead. However, word spread and more and more people rose up against the dictator. He decided to flee the country with his wife but was captured, tried and executed by a firing squad on Christmas Day in 1989. In 1990, democratic elections were held and people's rights restored.
A jubilant crowd celebrates outside the Central Communist Party offices after the building was occupied by the army. The Romanian popular revolt and coup of 22-25 December 1989 represented a decisive moment in the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.
Interesting Facts
- Under the rule of Ceausescu, women in Romania had to have at least 5 children or else they would have to pay higher taxes.
- North Korea and Cuba are examples of dictatorships which still exist today.
- Adolf Hitler and Stalin are examples of dictators from the past.
Big Question
- Under Hitler's power, there was low unemployment and German industry boomed. Similar things have occurred in many dictatorships. Can a dictatorship ever be a good thing for a country?
