Family dictatorship

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A family dictatorship, in political science terms a personalistic regime, is a form of dictatorship that operates much like an absolute monarchy, yet occurs in a nominally republican state.

When the dictator of a family dictatorship dies, one of his relatives (usually his son) becomes the new ruler of the country. This transition often occurs after years of "grooming" the dictator's successor as heir apparent.

What makes a family dictatorship unique is that this hereditary order of succession is not formally enshrined in law, as it is in a monarchy.

1 Successful transitions of power
- 1.1 Indirect successions
2 Unsuccessful transitions of power
3 Notes
4 See also
5 External link

[edit] Successful transitions of power

Dates in parentheses denote the period of rule.

England: Oliver Cromwell (1653-1658) succeeded by his son Richard Cromwell (1658-1659)
Paraguay: José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia (1814-1840), succeeded by his nephew Carlos Antonio López (1841-1862), succeeded by his son, Francisco Solano López (1862-1869)
Costa Rica: Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez (1870-1876, de facto 1876-1877, and 1877-1882), succeeded by his brother-in-law Próspero Fernández Oreamuno (1882-1885), succeeded by his posthumous son-in-law Bernardo Soto Alfaro (1885-1890)
El Salvador: Carlos Meléndez (1915-1918), succeeded by his brother Jorge Meléndez (1919-1923), succeeded by his brother-in-law Alfonso Quiñónez Molina (1923-1927)
Nicaragua: Anastasio Somoza García (1937-1947, 1950-1956) succeeded by his son Luis Somoza Debayle (1956-1963). There was also a third Somoza president, Anastasio Somoza Debayle (1967-1972, 1974-1979), though he did not directly succeed the other two.
North Korea: Kim Il Sung (1948-1994) succeeded by his son Kim Jong-il (1994- )
Haiti: François Duvalier (1957-1971) succeeded by his son Jean-Claude Duvalier (1971-1986)
Equatorial Guinea: Francisco Macías Nguema (1968-1979), succeeded after a coup d'état by his nephew Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (1979- )
Syria: Hafez al-Assad (1971-2000) succeeded by his son Bashar al-Assad (2000- )
Djibouti: Hassan Gouled Aptidon (1977-1999) succeeded by his nephew Ismail Omar Guelleh (1999- )
Azerbaijan: Heydar Aliyev (1993-2003) succeeded by his son Ilham Aliyev (2003- )
Congo-Kinshasa: Laurent Kabila (1997-2001), succeeded by his son Joseph Kabila (2001-)
Togo: Faure Gnassingbé succeeded his father Gnassingbé Eyadéma as President on February 5, 2005. Under international pressure, Faure had to resign on February 25, 2005, but he won an election in April and was sworn in again in May.

[edit] Indirect successions

Republic of China (from 1949 on Taiwan): Chiang Kai-shek (1928-1975) indirectly succeeded by his son Chiang Ching-kuo (1978-1988)

Republic of Singapore: Lee Kuan Yew (1965-1990) indirectly succeeded by his son Lee Hsien Loong (2004-incumbent)

[edit] Unsuccessful transitions of power

Dominican Republic: Rafael Trujillo (de facto 1930-1961, with brother Héctor serving as figurehead president 1952-1960), nominally succeeded by his son Ramfis Trujillo for a few months in 1961; Ramfis failed to fully consolidate his power over the country and was overthrown.
Romania: Nicolae Ceauşescu's heir apparent was his son Nicu Ceauşescu.^[1]
Iraq: Saddam Hussein's heir apparent was his son Uday and latter the second oldest son Qusay. Saddam was removed from power in 2003 and both sons were killed.
Zaire: Mobutu Sese Seko's heir apparent was his son Nyiwa, who held several cabinet posts and was being groomed to succeed his father;^[2] however, this succession never came to fruition, as not only was Nyiwa killed by AIDS in 1994,^[3] but Mobutu himself was later overthrown (in 1997) by Laurent Kabila