Dictatorship
Dictatorship, in contemporary usage, refers to absolute rule by a leadership (usually one Dictator) unrestricted by law, constitutions, or other social and political factors within the state.
In Classical usage, dictatorship referred to magistrates in Ancient Rome that were allocated absolute power during times of emergency. Their power was neither arbitrary nor unaccountable, however, being subject to law and requiring retrospective justification. There were no such dictatorships after the beginning of the 2nd century BCE, and later dictators such as Sulla and the Roman Emperors exercised power much more personally and arbitrarily.
The 20th century
Interwar era
In the twentieth century, dictatorship has been an essential pillar of single-party states, military regimes, and other forms of Authoritarianism.In the interwar era (between the First World War and the Second World War), fascist regimes, such as Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany, incorporated principles of dictatorship with a single-party state, mass mobilization and regimentation of social and economic activity, and arbitrary exercise of police power. The prototype of the fascist dictatorship was fashioned in Italy after 1922, and later emulated by Nazi Germany (beginning in 1933), as well as by a number of other fascist or quasi-fascist European governments during the 1930s. Fascist dictatorships were dealt a fatal blow by the defeat of the Axis Powers in World War II.
Also during the interwar era, the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin fused dictatorship with single-party rule, mass mobilization, and arbitrary use of power. Stalin was the first modern dictator who created himself a Cult of personality. The Soviet Union emerged victorious in the Second World War and entered a new phase after Stalin's death, by shifting from a personal dictatorship to a collective leadership.