Short answers, pulled from the story.
A dictatorship is a form of government characterized by a leader who holds absolute or near-absolute political power. Politics are controlled by a dictator and facilitated through an inner circle of elites, including advisers, generals, and other high-ranking officials. The dictator maintains control by appeasing this inner circle and repressing opposition such as rival parties, armed resistance, or disloyal members of the circle.
The three main types are military dictatorships, controlled by military officers, one-party dictatorships, controlled by the leadership of a political party, and personalist dictatorships, controlled by a single individual. This classification began with political scientist Barbara Geddes in 1999 and focuses on where power lies. Regimes that combine these classifications are called hybrid dictatorships.
The word dictator originated in the early Roman Republic as a constitutional office that gave a leader a temporary grant of absolute power to handle an emergency. A Roman dictator was a special magistrate appointed by the consul during a crisis. At least 85 such dictators were chosen for the Roman Republic, and Julius Caesar later broke the tradition by being made dictator perpetuo, a dictator for life.
Personalist dictatorships became the most common form of authoritarianism, rising from 28 percent of authoritarian regimes in 1988 to 52 percent by 2010. They place all power in the hands of a single individual who controls key political positions and the treasury. They are more prone to corruption, more repressive than other forms, and often collapse with the death of the dictator.
One-party dictatorships are more stable because a ruling party permeates every level of society, allowing broad influence over the populace and political agreement among elites. Between 1950 and 2016 they made up 57 percent of authoritarian regimes in the world. They tend to see higher economic growth and are significantly less likely to face civil conflict, insurgency, or terrorism.
In the 21st century, most dictators moved away from being larger-than-life figures who ruled through terror and instead cultivated a positive public image to integrate with the global community. Some are labeled spin dictators, who appeal to democratic sentiments while covertly pursuing repression through technology, information manipulation, and cyberspace regulation. By 2019, the number of authoritarian governments had again surpassed democracies by 92 to 87.
Dictatorships hold elections to maintain legitimacy, presenting the image of democracy and creating plausible deniability about their status for both citizens and foreign governments. These sham elections also control elites by making them compete and build popular support, and they let dictators accept defeat without fearing violence. By 2018, roughly two-thirds of dictatorships permitted opposition candidates in semi-competitive elections in which the opposition still could not win.