Right-wing dictatorship

A right-wing dictatorship (sometimes also referred to as a rightist dictatorship) is an authoritarian regime whose policy could be called rightist.

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 term fascist dictatorship is sometimes used interchangeably with the right-wing one. It is commonly accepted that Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy were ruled by fascist governments at some points of their history; how it refers to other right-wing regimes is a question of further debate. The Estado Novo in Portugal was a right-wing dictatorship which was corporatist in nature (much like Mussolini's fascism). 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 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; 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, most notably the Nazi Germany in Germany, and some other, like the pre-revolutionary Pahlavis' Iranian regime, even openly anti-religious.

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. 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 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:

Country	Historical name(s)	Movement(s)	Years of rule	Dictator(s)
Albania	Principality of Albania, Albanian Republic	None	1922–1928	Zog (prior to becoming a monarch)
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	1923–1926 1934–1945	Aleksandar Tsankov Kimon Georgiev
Croatia	Independent State of Croatia Republic of Croatia	Croatian Revolutionary Movement Croatian Democratic Union	1941–1945 1990–1999	Ante Pavelić Franjo Tuđman
Cyprus	Republic of Cyprus	EOKA B	1974	Nikos Sampson
Estonia	Republic of Estonia	None	1934–1940	Konstantin Päts
France	French State	Collaborationist government	1940–1944	Philippe Pétain
Georgia	Republic of Georgia	Union of Citizens of Georgia	1995–2003	Eduard Shevardnadze
Germany	Third Reich	NSDAP	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	None 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	1940–1941 1941–1944	Ion Antonescu with Horia Sima Ion Antonescu
Serbia	Serbia	None Yugoslav National Movement	1941–1945	Milan Nedić
Slovakia	First Slovak Republic Second Slovak Republic	Hlinka's Slovak People's Party – Party of Slovak National Unity People's Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia	1939–1945 1994–1998	Jozef Tiso Vladimír Mečiar
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	Yugoslav Radical Union	1935–1939	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	Various	1961–1987	Park Chung-hee Chun Doo-hwan
Japan	Empire of Japan	Imperial Rule Assistance Association	1930s–1945	Fumimaro Konoe Hideki Tojo
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

See also

• Police state
• Military dictatorship
• Military government
• Films depicting Latin American military dictatorships
• List of political leaders who held active military ranks in office