Gentle Dictators?

[IrishMike]

We have all heard of the evil, brutal dictators, but have their ever been, in history, good, gentlel dictators?

I got to thinking and couldn't really think of any, so I ask you guys this question.
If so what did they rule, and what time period?

[barocca]

Edward Bouverie Pusey,
born at Pusey House, Berkshire, 22 Aug., 1800
died at Ascot Priory, Berkshire, 16 Sept 1882
gentle dictator to the English Church Union

B.

[tibilicus]

Was Ceaser not a dictator? He rulled farley kind towards his people. The reson there arnt that many good dictators is because power corupts........ how sad the world is today..

[Ash]

Was Ceaser not a dictator? He rulled farley kind towards his people. The reson there arnt that many good dictators is because power corupts........ how sad the world is today..

I think he was named Consul for life in the end.

He didn't spend much time governing though, he was fighting Senate armies for 2 years after he achieved that position. Then he got butchered after he defeated them.

[The Wizard]

Cyrus the Great, Cambyses II, Darius the Great... all enlightened despots.

All the monarchs noted in history as 'enlightened absolutists', such as Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great and our very own William I, were also 'gentle dictators' (although I have some doubts about ol' William).



~Wiz

[caesar44]

caesar was dictator 5 times (that is in 5 years) than he became dictator for 10 years and then for life but he was murdered few months after
he also was consul 5 times
caesar as you know never took the crown
he was loved by the people but the aristocracy hated him

[tibilicus]

Wow ceaser was killed because he was to good. A message here be good, but not to good.

[PanzerJaeger]

How did Franco rule after he got power?

[Byzantine Prince]

We have all heard of the evil, brutal dictators, but have their ever been, in history, good, gentlel dictators?

I beleave that's an oxymoron.

How did Franco rule after he got power?

He was almost as bad as Stalin minus all the purges. He dissallowed art and literature and he brutalized many. He's one of the worst examples.

[tibilicus]

Franco caused a civil war i think anyway, suported the Nazie rageim and denied spain Marshall aid because of this. Who knows if there wasnt a civil war and Franco did suport the Nazies...... The world could be a lot different today. And i probably wouldnt be alive.

[PanzerJaeger]

Hehe i know about how he took power, but ive heard spanish people talk relatively well about him. I think it depended on which side you were on in the civil war as to how he treated you afterward?

[doc_bean]

I think quite a few kings and queens were 'good' dictators in the day, Caesar was already mentioned, but what about Augustus ? He designed Imperial Rome, and tried to do good for the provinces.

It all depends on how you look at it though, everyone who ever had a position with virtually absolute power has done some horrible things, hard choices need to be made.

[Longshanks]

Julius Caesar did some fairly brutal things while fighting the Gauls and the Germans, but they were enemies of Rome. He would definately qualify as a benevolent dictator, at least as far as the Romans are concerned.

"...a man who had become strongly committed to the popular cause and highly experienced in the exercise of power, was murdered in the senate-house by Brutus and Cassius out of jealousy of his immense power and out of longing for the traditional constitution. The people in fact missed him more than they had anyone else; they went round hunting for his killers, gave him a funeral in the middle of the forum, built a temple on the site of the pyre, and still sacrifice to him as a god."

Appian, I, 4.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

How about the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten ?

[Red Harvest]

Yes, I was thinking of Napoleon as well. Compared to the revolution's bloody reign of terror, and the failed monarchy before it, his dictatorship seems rather "gentle" for his French citizens. And his social reforms and approach to wts./measures/sciences were quite progressive. That need to conquer the world makes it a tough sell though. However, since nearly all of Europe was dedicated to restoring the French monarchy and crushing France, I find this distraction quite understandable, if lamentable.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

Sorry Red I edited Napoleon out as the question wasnt benevolent dictator but Gentle. One might say Napoleon was benevolent but I dont think you can make a very good argument that he was gentle. I mean he was a General who personaly led men in battle. So are we only looking for gentile dictators or will benevolent ones be incuded? If so that opens up a whole lot more possibilities.

[IrishMike]

Lets open it up to benevolent/good dictators. People that ruled well and helped their people out, not slaughter them and do evil acts.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

Well its your thread, your the boss

So then Ill go back to Elizabeth the 1st. Lets not leave out Peter the great who almost single habdidly brought Russia out of the dark ages. And while were talking Russia lets not leave out that other Great one Catherine the Great. There are many many examples of benevolent despots out there. Heres a gentle one that was mentioned in another thread. The Dalai Lama. You could even include the Pope.

[Byzantine Prince]

Lets open it up to benevolent/good dictators. People that ruled well and helped their people out, not slaughter them and do evil acts.

*sigh* once again, isn't that an oxymoron?

[PanzerJaeger]

*sigh* once again, isn't that an oxymoron?

In Germany after ww1, many people longed for the good old days when there was one strong ruler in the country and they didnt have to deal with the mess of the new republic... So no.

[IrishMike]

BP yes it is quite an oxymoron, but only because we have heard of evil dictators. So the evil images becomes the same as the image of a dictator. This is why I made this thread. I wanted to know if their were some good dictators throughout history.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

There were probably as many good dictators as there were evilones. Dictators are only human just like the rest of us No better no worse.

[Ironside]

*sigh* once again, isn't that an oxymoron?

The word dictorship only implies one-man rule, nothing more. Thus a benevolent dictorship isn't an oxymoron.

[Watchman]

I'm pretty sure calling nigh any Russian czar after Peter the Great, nevermind the man himself, a "benevolent dictator" amounts to flat historical revisionism. Well, except maybe for that Alexander the Second, the "liberator czar" who abolished serfdom and was well enough liked that there's still a statue of him standing next to the Finnish president's office... although I'm pretty sure Russia was engaging in hardcore imperialism and fighting brutal wars with Turkey also during his reign.

But old Peter ? Get real. The man was a straight tyrant who all but invented the thereafter stock Russian practice of doing nigh anything in the most costly, bloody manner possible. The construction of St. Petersburg on a bloody mosquito-infested swampland, which cost the lives of thousands and again thousands of Swedish POWs and drafted Russian serfs is merely the tip of the iceberg. And do you have any idea of the kind of treatment his enemies tended to get en masse ?
In his later days it was something of a hobby of his to invent new taxes to pay for his assorted modernization projects and wars. That Russians these days tend to view him as a "great man" mostly shows they have a few collective screws loose; it'd be much easier to feel sympathetic for the poor buggers about the bloody-handed tyrants they seem to get as leaders if they didn't build altars for those psychos.

That's actually more or less the case with most result-producing "great leaders". In most cases to view them as "great men" and "benevolent rulers" requires overlooking, explaining away or bluntly ignoring a whole lot of atrocities, bloody wars, internal repression and assorted personal shortcomings. I mean, the damn Saddam Hussein was actually something of an enlightened despot - back when he could still afford it (ie. pre-1991) he was pretty big on supporting education, progressive social developements etc. and if you didn't cause trouble odds were you could live pretty nicely under his reign.
But I don't think I need to go over his repressive policies or how he treated "troublemakers" (including, as usual, people who spoke ill of "great and benevolent leader"), now do I ?

[Uesugi Kenshin]

From what I have heard Catherine the Great was an enlightened despot, not a benevolent or good dictator. She slaughtered peasants for trying to get out from under surfdom after all.

[Byzantine Prince]

The word dictorship only implies one-man rule, nothing more. Thus a benevolent dictorship isn't an oxymoron.

A dictator means one man rule yes. But in order to keep that rule then the person in power will have to be brutal. The beginner of this thread asked if there was a dictator that did NOT brutalize people, and that is an oxymoron like for example "good war" because in order to become a dictator and maintain it, it's inherent to become brutal or to be brutal. Name one that didn't commit hanous crimes in order to get there.

[Shambles]

A dictator means one man rule yes. But in order to keep that rule then the person in power will have to be brutal. The beginner of this thread asked if there was a dictator that did NOT brutalize people, and that is an oxymoron like for example "good war" because in order to become a dictator and maintain it, it's inherent to become brutal or to be brutal. Name one that didn't commit hanous crimes in order to get there.

really i thought a dictator was some 1 who told you what to do,
you dont get to vote on it
and you just do as he said or els.

Even if your not telling your own country what to do,
and in fact your telling a Nother country what to do,
then your a dictator as well.

ive edited the bit where i mention a country,
But not many go round trying to tell people what to do dictating the law.

[caesar44]

Wow ceaser was killed because he was to good. A message here be good, but not to good.

oh it is a surprise for you ? so think about kennedy who was not a dictator but was killed ? and he was good

[hoom]

Kennedy was only kind of good.
Vietnam was escalated under his rule & I think the Bay of Pigs happened too?

Very few political leaders have ever been truly and entirely good regardless of how they got to be in power.

[tibilicus]

I still feel strongly abou the Vietnam war. All that life was lost for nothing it was unwinable from the start. Thts my fear ofer the wars of the future there will be to much resitence from rebels e.c.t. to ever win.