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The benevolent dictatorship is a more modern version of enlightened absolutism^{[citation needed]}, being an undemocratic or authoritarian leader who exercises his or her political power for the benefit of the people rather than exclusively for his or her own self-interest or benefit, or for the benefit of only a small portion of the people. A benevolent dictator, for example, may focus government priorities on matters of public importance, such as healthcare, education, population control, or general city infrastructure. According to the Donella Meadows Archive former prime minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew was a benevolent dictator.^[1] He or she may be committed to peaceful relations, rather than wars or invasions of other states, and may even allow for some democratic decision-making to exist, such as through public referendums.

Alistair Cooke described Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency in the two years from his inauguration to Supreme Court's declaration that the National Recovery Administration was unconstitutional, as a benevolent dictatorship.^[2]

[edit] Characteristics

Most dictators' regimes unfailingly portray themselves as benevolent, and often tend to regard democratic regimes as messy, inefficient, and corrupt. Additionally, many dictators may attempt to openly spread misinformation about their benevolence in an attempt to create a personality cult.

In the Spanish language, the word dictablanda is sometimes used for a dictatorship conserving some of the liberties and mechanisms of democracy. (The pun is that, in Spanish, dictadura is "dictatorship", dura is "hard" and blanda is "soft").

[edit] Open Source Usage

In the modern era, the term benevolent dictator has also been applied to leaders of an open source software project that have final control over the direction and content of software developed by a larger group of programmers. Because open source software may be forked, non-benevolent dictatorships do not generally occur.

[edit] See also

• Enlightened absolutism
• Benevolent Dictator For Life

[edit] References