Many in the west can ask how a country can fall under a dictator, how can this happen, and many other questsions of those nature, with many friends from Zimbabwe who fled across the border to escape Mugabe and other far flung areas of Africa *one of my best friend's uncles fought with UNITA* I find it amazing how people can be so blind how dictators work, so this is my brief analysis.

1- Getting into power

A dictator gets into power in many ways, but there are 2 common ways. They are democratically elected or lead a coup against a democracy and "dissolve" the democracy to "re-organize" the government to make it "stronger" or for a myraid of other reasons like to prevent "corruption", case in point- Jean Bedel Bokassa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokassa
Either that, or they overthrow a dictator or corrupt government already in power and claim "liberity" for the people, and often become just as despotic as the ones they removed. Now for some specifics, here is a list I have made.
--Exmplifying an external threat to remove attention to internal policy
case in point-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War
--Creating a scapegoat to blame all the people's problems on.
case in point-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler
--Creating a superiority complex for the nation or race the dictator champions
case in point- look up one....

Those are the 3 main things, I know there are many more, now lets examine the other benefits of a dictator.

1-Economy

Under a dictator it is easy to get decisions done, and often dictators, assuming they aren't completely insane, often get quick results, but due to conflicting intrests between the dictator and other "things" we often see a pleteau effect, immediately economic growth is experienced, followed by a time with very little if any growth.

2-Physological

While later on people live in fear of a dictator, fearing the numerous secret police agencies used and such, it is also nice to know that your country is secure against those external threats you know are out there... Nobody likes a civil war, and often in nations with little case of nationality as a whole and rather tribalisim dominating, we quickly see that people don't care who wins, as long as SOMEONE wins, case in point- modern day somollia.

3-Civil

When a dictator establishes power he often goes through sweeping civil reforms, which do improve things *Saadam for example* but not always, and sometimes only seek to shuffle the problems. Dictators are often quick to establish a personality cult to accompany thier civil sucess, and often quickly dominate education.

4-Conclusion

Dictators are often much more then just crazy lunatics, many start off with genuinely good intentions, but as the saying goes
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely"

Thoughts? Feelings? Criticisim? Stories?
All responses are welcome!