How To Be A Dictator | Frank Dikotter | Modern Wisdom Podcast 102

(wind blowing) Oh, hello there, friends. Today we're going to learn how to be a dictator. Well, kind of. Frank Dikotter is an author, and his most recent book, How To Be A Dictator, looks at eight of the most chillingly effective dictators of the 21st century. So we're gonna learn about Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Kim Il-sung, and a couple of leaders that I'm going to leave to Frank to pronounce. But yeah, the characteristics of a dictator are oddly similar whilst also being incredibly unique. As Frank identifies, one dictator from one regime at one particular period of time wouldn't work at all if he was to swap places with another. As always, if you've got any questions, comments or feedback, feel free to get at me @chriswillx wherever you follow me. But for now, please welcome Frank Dikotter. (electronic music plays) I am joined by Frank Dikotter at the beginning of his book tour. Frank, how are you? Welcome to the show.

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

It's an absolute pleasure to have you on. So today you're going to teach us how to be a dictator, right?

That's the title of the book. Not sure I can, um, really help you go all the way.

It's not a ... So it's not a personal development, self-development, how-to book?

It's, um, it's probably more of a history book that will tell you how to spot other potential dictators.

Got you. (laughs) Okay. Well, if there are any budding dictators in the, uh, in the audience, they, they might be a little disappointed. But for everyone else, those of us who are gonna be fascinated. So tell us w- why you wrote the book, first off.

Um, well, I'm a historian, and when you think about it, uh, you could pretty much summarise the 20th century, uh, in about a sentence. There is an attempt um, on the one hand, to separate out powers. In other words, to build up a civil society, um, to have checks and balances. That's a very difficult thing to do. Um, it's frail, it's fragile, um, but it's made great progress. And then on the other hand, there is an attempt to concentrate all power. In other words, to make sure that there is an authoritarian regime with one person who makes all the decisions. These are two very contradictory trends, um, and I spent most of my career really studying countries, um, where attempts have been made to concentrate powers in the hands of a dictator. Um, so that really was pr- what prompted me to write this book.

I suppose that when people think back to the 20th century that are, that, that will be some of the defining characteristics, right? So what is a dictator in its purest form?

Well, this may sound strange, but you have to think of a dictator, um, as developing against a background of democracy. In other words, to put it slightly differently, we live in an age of democracy. In fact, since the French and the American revolutions of the 18th century, we live more or less in an age of democracy. In other words, sovereignty with the collapse of old regimes and France, uh, in particular, uh, power is seen to reside no longer in some sort of, uh, heavenly mandate or in the divine rights, but in the people. And people select a leader through a process of elections. Of course, this is a, a very gradually unfolding age of democracy, but it means that there is a paradox with dictators. They seize power on the one hand, but they must also create the illusion somehow of popular support. And that's where the cult of personality comes in. That's one of the key focuses of the book. Uh, a dictator must, on the one hand, uh, use terror, you know, the, the secret police, military forces, uh, torturers, spies, the Praetorian Guard, concentration camps. But on the other hand, there must also be an attempt to build up what I call a cult of personality. In other words, a dictator must coerce his people into acclaiming him. He must create the illusion that people actually support him.