The differing mixture of bureaucratic and charismatic rule illustrates the differences that existed between the four dictatorships.
In monarchies, nobles count; in military dictatorships, officers count; in communist authoritarianism, nomenklatura officials count.
The speed with which states are recognised today tends to accommodate and justify even ruthless dictatorships, political repression and economic deprivation.
The war experience also provided strong incentives for the creation of a system of checks and balances to prevent the rise of dictatorships in the future.
Governments fell in the face of internal conflict, constitutions changed according to the ruling faction and dictatorships emerged as the only apparent solution to the problem of political order.
We must not, it seems to me, be distracted or brainwashed by simplistic rhetoric about bolstering up brutal dictatorships.
European history has shown how extremist parties, dressed in democratic clothes and using populist and nationalist propaganda, have often led democracy to dictatorships.
Oppressive dictatorships were backed for fear of mass rebellion.
