Talk:Dictatorship

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"Autocracy" is defined as (underlines added for emphasis) "a form of government in which absolute power is held by one person, known as an autocrat. It includes absolute monarchy and all forms of dictatorship, while it is contrasted with democracy and other forms of free government." However, this article includes one-party states and military regimes as dictatorships.

In one-party states and military regimes, power can be shared (more or less evenly) among the party/military leaders, or it can be concentrated in the hands of one of those leaders. The former case fits the criteria of an oligarchy ("a form of government in which power rests with a small number of people"), while the latter fits the criteria of an autocracy (as previously defined). Furthermore, Wikipedia considers the oligarchic version of a military regime to be a distinct enough concept to warrant its own article: military junta.

If autocracy includes "all forms of dictatorship", then that means (unless my logic is flawed) that all forms of dictatorship are autocratic. If all forms of dictatorship are autocratic, then the oligarchic versions of one-party and military regimes should be excluded from this article.

By including autocratic and oligarchic regimes, this article blurs the distinction between them, and partially contradicts the (lead of the) article on autocracy. In my mind, by including both autocracies and oligarchies, this article's de facto definition of "dictatorship" seems to be practically synonymous with "authoritarianism", which has its own article.

In summary, I believe this article, and at least some of the others, need to make a better distinction between these similar but distinct concepts. ZFT (talk) 03:33, 17 September 2025 (UTC)

Previously, I was under the assumption that the "proper" definition of "dictatorship" was government by a single absolute ruler. Having reviewed the definitions of "dictator" and "dictatorship" on The Free Dictionary, I'm now of the understanding that the term "dictator" need not be restricted to restricted to autocratic leaders. ZFT (talk) 05:02, 23 September 2025 (UTC)

The way this article defines "dictatorship" includes both autocratic and oligarchic forms of government, which are, from what I understand, the two overarching categories into which authoritarian regimes may be grouped (based on how they are structured). Therefore there seems to be a very large degree of overlap between the given definitions of "authoritarianism" and "dictatorship", suggesting that these articles should either be rewritten to make the distinction clearer, or that they should be merged. ZFT (talk) 20:00, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Essentially, yes, there is a lot of overlap. That's something we have to work with for social science-y definitions like this. One of the main points would be the authoritarian/totalitarian distinction that's sometimes used in the literature. Stalin and Suharto were both dictators, but Stalin was totalitarian while Suharto was authoritarian. I can't attest to whether this is a universally recognized distinction or not, but it's one example of differentiation that's commonly used. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 🛸 20:23, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

I removed the text in question, not only is that definition quite fringe (i don't hear of a group of leaders being called a dictatorship often), it was not sourced. Hope that helps :) Plasticwonder (talk) 01:05, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Thank you, it does help; though the body of the article also should be cleaned up, as it uses the former, loose definition. ZFT (talk) 03:42, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Could you give examples? I will fix whatever you mention. Plasticwonder (talk) 03:48, 13 November 2025 (UTC)