Right-wing dictatorship

A right-wing dictatorship (sometimes also referred to as a rightist dictatorship) is an authoritarian (or sometimes totalitarian) regime whose policy could be called right-wing. There are various definitions of the term "rightist". The broadest one includes all dictatorships that do not consider themselves communist. Those are usually pro-capitalist in economic matters and conservative in ideological ones. The Estado Novo in Portugal was a right-wing dictatorship which was corporatist in nature. Most South American dictatorships during the second half of the 20th century were right-wing: Pinochet, the Brazilian Military Government, etc. There have also been a number of military dictatorships installed by anti-communists which were generally conservative and rightist.

Military government

In the most common Western view, the perfect example of a right-wing dictatorship is any of those that once ruled in South America. Those regimes were predominantly military juntas and most of them collapsed in the 1980s. Communist countries, which were very cautious about not revealing their authoritarian methods of rule to the public, were usually led by civilian governments and officers taking power were not much welcomed there. Few exceptions include the Burmese Way to Socialism (Burma, 1966–1988), the Military Council of National Salvation (People's Republic of Poland, 1981–1983) or the North Korean regime's evolution throughout the rule of Kim Il-sung.

Religion and the government

Most right-wing regimes kept strong ties with local Churches (usually the Roman Catholic ones since most of those regimes happened in Catholic countries). This policy of a strong Church-state alliance is usually referred to as Austrofascism. The most pro-Catholic dictatorships were Portugal (1933–1974) and the Federal State of Austria (1934–1938). Non-Christian dictatorships include those in the Muslim world, the most famous being Iran since the revolution of 1979. There are several other examples of theocratic (and therefore right-wing) regimes in the region, like Somalia^{[clarification needed]} or Afghanistan under the Taliban. While it is unclear whether a monarchy could be called a dictatorship, theocratic absolute monarchies of Saudi Arabia or Vatican City share many similarities with the regimes mentioned above. Many of those are/were led by spiritual leaders and examples include the Slovak Republic under the Reverend Josef Tiso or Iran under the Ayatollahs Khomeini (1979–1989) and Khamenei (1989–present). Some right-wing dictatorships, like the Nazi Germany, were even openly hostile to certain religions.^[1]

Europe

In some post-communist countries, people involved in the previous regime took power in the years following the end of the Cold War. The most famous example of a European dictatorship of that sort is Belarus under Alexander Lukashenko.^{[clarification needed]} Belarus and Azerbaijan were both considered "authoritarian regimes" by the Democracy Index as of 2008. Freedom House marks them "not-free states" together with Russia, so whether Russia is a dictatorship or just a seriously flawed democracy is a question of further debate. All three governments are non-communist and especially in Russia sometimes stay in total opposition to the communist parties, therefore they^{[original research?]} could be called right-wing as well.

List of European right-wing dictatorships

Considering a right-wing dictatorship any non-democratic (non-parliamentary or pseudo-parliamentary political system, suppression of basic freedoms such as association and speech, prosecution of opponents, etc.) regime that is not communist, the list of European examples would be as following:

Current

Country	Dictator(s)	Electoral alliance	Ruling political party or ruling political parties	Date of establishment of dictatorship	Date of disestablishment of dictatorship
Republic of Azerbaijan	Heydar Aliyev Ilham Aliyev	N/A	New Azerbaijan Party	24 June 1993	N/A
Republic of Belarus	Alexander Lukashenko	N/A	Communist Party of Belarus Belarusian Patriotic Party Republican Party of Labour and Justice	20 July 1994	N/A
Russian Federation	Vladimir Putin	N/A	United Russia	31 December 1999	N/A
Republic of Turkey	Recep Erdoğan	People's Alliance	Justice and Development Party	20 July 2016	N/A

Former

Country	Historical name(s)	Movement(s)	Years of rule	Dictator(s)
Albania	Principality of Albania, Albanian Republic, Albanian Kingdom	None	1922–1939	Zog
Austria	Federal State of Austria	Fatherland's Front	1934–1938	Engelbert Dollfuss, Kurt Schuschnigg
Azerbaijan	Republic of Azerbaijan	New Azerbaijan Party	1993–present	Heydar Aliyev, Ilham Aliyev
Bulgaria	Kingdom of Bulgaria	None Zveno	1923–1926 1934–1945	Aleksandar Tsankov Kimon Georgiev Boris III Kiril
Croatia	Independent State of Croatia	Croatian Revolutionary Movement	1941–1945	Ante Pavelić
Cyprus	Republic of Cyprus	EOKA B	1974	Nikos Sampson
Estonia^{[citation needed]}	Republic of Estonia	Patriotic League	1934–1940^[2]	Konstantin Päts
France	French State	Collaborationist government	1940–1944	Philippe Pétain
Georgia^{[citation needed]}	Republic of Georgia	Union of Citizens of Georgia	1995–2003	Eduard Shevardnadze
Germany	Third Reich	National Socialist German Workers' Party	1933–1945	Adolf Hitler
Greece	Second Hellenic Republic Kingdom of Greece Hellenic State Kingdom of Greece	Military 4th of August Regime Collaborationist government Regime of the Colonels	1925–1926 1936–1941 1941–1944 1967–1974	Theodoros Pangalos Ioannis Metaxas Georgios Tsolakoglou, Konstantinos Logothetopoulos, Ioannis Rallis Georgios Papadopoulos
Hungary	Kingdom of Hungary Hungary	Unity Party Arrow Cross Party	1920–1944 1944–1945	Miklós Horthy Ferenc Szálasi
Italy	Kingdom of Italy Italian Social Republic	National Fascist Party Republican Fascist Party	1922-1943 1943–1945	Benito Mussolini Benito Mussolini
Latvia	Republic of Latvia	Latvian Farmers' Union (disbanded after coup)	1934–1940	Kārlis Ulmanis
Lithuania	Republic of Lithuania	Lithuanian Nationalist Union	1926–1940	Antanas Smetona
Netherlands	Reichskommissariat Niederlande	National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands	1940–1945	Anton Mussert
Norway	Reichskommissariat Norwegen	Nasjonal Samling	1940–1945	Vidkun Quisling
Poland	Second Polish Republic	Sanation	1926–1939	Józef Piłsudski and Piłsudski's colonels
Portugal	Portuguese First Republic Portuguese First Republic Ditadura Nacional Estado Novo	Military None Military National Union	1915 1917–1918 1926–1933 1933–1974	Joaquim Pimenta de Castro Sidónio Pais Óscar Carmona António de Oliveira Salazar, Marcelo Caetano
Romania	Kingdom of Romania	National Renaissance Front Antonescu's government with the Iron Guard None	1938–1940 1940–1941 1941–1944	Carol II Ion Antonescu with Horia Sima Ion Antonescu
Serbia	Serbia	None Yugoslav National Movement	1941–1945	Milan Nedić
Slovakia	First Slovak Republic	Hlinka's Slovak People's Party – Party of Slovak National Unity	1939–1945	Jozef Tiso
Spain	Kingdom of Spain Spanish State/Kingdom of Spain	Spanish Patriotic Union Falange	1923–1930 1939–1977	Miguel Primo de Rivera Francisco Franco
Yugoslavia	Kingdom of Yugoslavia	Royal Yugoslav Radical Union	1929–1941	Alexander I of Yugoslavia Prince Paul of Yugoslavia Milan Stojadinović

^ Semi-authoritarian regime.

^ Semi-authoritarian regime in the years 1938–1940.

^ Semi-authoritarian regime.

Asia

List of Asian right-wing dictatorships

Country	Historical name(s)	Movement(s)	Years of rule	Dictator(s)
Republic of China	Republic of China	Kuomintang	1925–1989	Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Ching-kuo
South Korea	Republic of Korea	Liberal Party Democratic Republican Party Democratic Justice Party	1948–1960 1961–1980 1980–1987	Rhee Syngman Park Chung-hee Chun Doo-hwan
Japan	Empire of Japan	Imperial Rule Assistance Association	1930s–1945	Fumimaro Konoe Hideki Tojo
Manchuria	Manchukuo	Concordia Association	1932–1945	Zheng Xiaoxu Zhang Jinghui
Thailand	Kingdom of Thailand	Khana Ratsadon	1927–1957	Plaek Phibunsongkhram
Philippines	Republic of the Philippines	Nacionalista Party Kilusang Bagong Lipunan	1965–1986	Ferdinand Marcos
Cambodia	Kingdom of Cambodia Khmer Republic	Social Republican Party Sangkum	1968–1975	Lon Nol

References

^ Gottfried, Ted (2001). Heroes of the Holocaust. Twenty-First Century Books. pp. 24–25. ISBN 9780761317173. Retrieved 14 January 2017. Some groups that are known to have helped Jews were religious in nature. One of these was the Confessing Church, a Protestant denomination formed in May 1934, the year after Hitler became chancellor of Germany. One of its goals was to repeal the Nazi law "which required that the civil service would be purged of all those who were either Jewish or of partly Jewish descent." Another was to help those "who suffered through repressive laws, or violence." About 7,000 of the 17,000 Protestant clergy in Germany joined the Confessing Church. Much of their work has one unrecognized, but two who will never forget them are Max Krakauer and his wife. Sheltered in sixty-six houses and helped by more than eighty individuals who belonged to the Confessing Church, they owe them their lives. German Catholic churches went out of their way to protect Catholics of Jewish ancestry. More inclusive was the principled stand taken by Catholic Bishop Clemens Count von Galen of Munster. He publicly denounced the Nazi slaughter of Jews and actually succeeded in having the problem halted for a short time. ... Members of the Society of Friends--German Quakers working with organizations of Friends from other countries--were particularly successful in rescuing Jews. ... Jehovah's Witnesses, themselves targeted for concentration camps, also provided help to Jews.

[Gottfried2001-1] Gottfried, Ted (2001). Heroes of the Holocaust. Twenty-First Century Books. pp. 24–25. ISBN 9780761317173. Retrieved 14 January 2017. Some groups that are known to have helped Jews were religious in nature. One of these was the Confessing Church, a Protestant denomination formed in May 1934, the year after Hitler became chancellor of Germany. One of its goals was to repeal the Nazi law "which required that the civil service would be purged of all those who were either Jewish or of partly Jewish descent." Another was to help those "who suffered through repressive laws, or violence." About 7,000 of the 17,000 Protestant clergy in Germany joined the Confessing Church. Much of their work has one unrecognized, but two who will never forget them are Max Krakauer and his wife. Sheltered in sixty-six houses and helped by more than eighty individuals who belonged to the Confessing Church, they owe them their lives. German Catholic churches went out of their way to protect Catholics of Jewish ancestry. More inclusive was the principled stand taken by Catholic Bishop Clemens Count von Galen of Munster. He publicly denounced the Nazi slaughter of Jews and actually succeeded in having the problem halted for a short time. ... Members of the Society of Friends--German Quakers working with organizations of Friends from other countries--were particularly successful in rescuing Jews. ... Jehovah's Witnesses, themselves targeted for concentration camps, also provided help to Jews.

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