President vs. Dictator

Main Difference

The main difference between President and Dictator is that the President is a leader of a country or part of a country, usually in republics and Dictator is a person who leads a dictatorship.

• President

  The president is a common title for the head of state in most republics. In politics, president is a title given to leaders of republican states.

  The functions exercised by a president vary according to the form of government. In parliamentary republics, they are limited to those of the head of state, and are thus largely ceremonial. In presidential and semi-presidential republics, the role of the president is more prominent, encompassing also (in most cases) the functions of the head of government. In authoritarian regimes, a dictator or leader of a one-party state may also be called a president.

• Dictator

  A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power and wields it in an oppressive manner. A state of which is ruled by a dictator is called a dictatorship. The word originated as the title of a magistrate in the Roman Republic appointed by the Senate to rule the republic in times of emergency (see Roman dictator and justitium).

  Like the term “tyrant” (which was originally a respectable Ancient Greek title), and to a lesser degree “autocrat”, “dictator” came to be used almost exclusively as a non-titular term for oppressive, even abusive rule, yet it had rare modern titular use.

  In modern usage, the term “dictator” is generally used to describe a leader who holds and/or abuses an extraordinary amount of personal power, especially the power to make laws without effective restraint by a legislative assembly. Dictatorships are often characterised by some of the following traits: suspension of elections and civil liberties; proclamation of a state of emergency; rule by decree; repression of political opponents without abiding by the rule of law procedures; these include one-party state, and cult of personality.

  The term “dictator” is comparable to – but not synonymous with – the ancient concept of a tyrant; initially “tyrant”, like “dictator”, did not carry negative connotations. A wide variety of leaders coming to power in a number of different kinds of regimes, such as military juntas, one-party states and civilian governments under a personal rule, have been described as dictators. They may hold left or right-wing views, or they may be apolitical.

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