Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index A collective dictatorship is a dictatorship where the dictator is not a single individual but is rather a group of leaders. An example of a collective dictatorship today would be China. All dictatorships are to some extent collective, since no one (unless they had semi-divine powers) can rule without the support of others; however in some there is nonetheless a clearly identifiable supreme leader, while in others there is no clearly identifiable leader. Even a dictatorship with a clear leader can be considered (in some sense) a collective dictatorship, if their rule is based on the support of the ruling collective, rather than the authority of their own personality. This distinction can be seen clearly by distinguishing between Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia (where Hitler or Stalin derived their authority from their person and the cult of personality) with post-Stalinist Russia (whose leaders derived their authority from the Communist Party they headed.) See also popular dictatorship This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.