Absolute power concentrated in one person produces a dictatorship. The dictator is not effectively constrained by law, independent institutions, or regular competitive elections.

Dictatorships arise through coups, revolutions, or the gradual erosion of democratic checks. They maintain control through repression, propaganda, patronage, and sometimes genuine popular support based on performance or ideology. Succession is often a point of crisis because formal rules for transfer are weak or ignored.

Some dictatorships are highly personalized; others rest on a ruling party or military junta with a single figurehead. Economic results vary widely. The absence of peaceful rotation of power and of protected opposition distinguishes dictatorship from democracy regardless of short-term policy outcomes.

• Rule by one person with unchecked power
• Lacks meaningful electoral competition
• Maintained by coercion and co-optation
• Succession often unstable