Excerpted from 20 Dictators Currently Supported by the U.S. by David Swanson, March 19, 2020
A dictator is a single individual who possesses such extreme power over a government that some people refer to it as “absolute power.” There are degrees of dictatorship, or — if you prefer — individuals who are partially dictators or somewhat dictatorial. Oppressive governments that restrict liberties, deny participation, and abuse human rights overlap considerably, but not entirely, with dictatorships.