Library:How to Be a Dictator
| How to Be a Dictator | |
|---|---|
| Author | Frank Dikötter |
| First published | 2019 |
| ISBN | 978-1-63557-379-4 unverified |
| Role | Analysis |
| Domains | History Politics & Elections |
| Tactics | Propaganda Technique |
How to Be a Dictator is a 2019 book by Frank Dikötter.
Summary
Frank Dikötter, a historian at the University of Hong Kong and the Hoover Institution, examines how eight 20th-century dictators built cults of personality.
Eight dictators
The subjects are Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Kim Il-sung, François Duvalier, Nicolae Ceaușescu and Mengistu Haile Mariam. Dikötter shows how each used portraits, statues, books, rallies and staged adulation to project an image of an all-knowing leader.
Fear behind the worship
He argues that the cult of personality was less about genuine belief than about forcing everyone to participate in public praise, so that no one could tell who truly supported the leader and who was afraid.
Relevance to Bullshitopedia
A comparative study of leader worship as propaganda, showing common techniques across very different regimes.