Dictator

Dictator is a ruler (e.g. absolutist or autocratic) who assumes sole and absolute power (sometimes, but not always, with military control or bribes).

Sometimes it is officially sanctioned by heritage (family), as in an absolute monarch. North Korea is an exception in which a family has ruled since the communist takeover of the North part of Korea. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship. 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 characterized by some of the following traits: suspension of elections and of civil liberties (freedom); proclamation of a state of emergency; rule by decree; repression of political opponents without abiding by rule of law procedures; these include single-party state, and cult of personality.