Tooting Carmen's list of relatively benign dictators

[Tooting Carmen]

Yes I know the concept of a 'benign dictator' might sound oxymoronic, but my definition is one who commits relatively small-scale human rights abuses, which are vastly outweighed by social and economic achievements.

Antonio da Oliveira Salazar, Portugal
Before his rise to power, Portugal had by some distance the worst literacy rate in Western Europe, and its currency collapsed something like three times in fifteen years. However, after rising to the top in a military regime which originally appointed him Minister for the Economy, he stabilised the country's finances and instigated a large schoolbuilding and literacy campaign which proved highly successful. While there were cases of dissident students and intellectuals being imprisoned, in comparison to many other dictatorships in Europe - notably in neighbouring Spain - it was much milder.

Josep Broz Tito, Yugoslavia
Following his singlehanded victory in WWII (in the sense the Soviets never arrived), he instigated a relatively decentralised and open socialist system based largely on communal farms and workers' councils, and kept Yugoslavia out of the Warsaw Pact and the submissiveness towards the USSR which accordingly went with it. Whatever his periodically repressive actions, he managed to keep this most ethnically divided and unstable part of Europe peaceful and united.

Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore
Transformed this Chinese enclave city-state from an impoverished, decadent, drug-ridden, crime-ridden hellhole into an extremely prosperous, lawful and orderly state. His economic policies combined widespread state ownership with low levels of regulation and openness to foreign investment, and although his laws regarding things like drink-driving, litter and gum dropping might seem draconian, it cannot be denied that Singapore nowadays is a bastion of cleanliness, order and civic-mindedness.

Julius Nyerere, Tanzania
Unlike many African dictators, he lived simply and did not take one penny that wasn't his. To varying degrees of success, he tried to introduce a kind of rural socialism to Tanzania, and kept the country peaceful especially compared to nearby countries like Zaire, Kenya and Uganda. (Also, he invaded Uganda in 1979 to get rid of Idi Amin).

Muammar Gadaffi, Libya
Yes, he sponsored dodgy insurgent groups, but in fact so do many Western governments and allies. While at times oppressive, Libya under Gadaffi had the highest living standards in ALL of Africa and the Middle East according to the UN (even more so than the Gulf Arab kingdoms), everyone had education, healthcare, housing, and if a treatment wasn't available in Libya then the government would pay for its citizens to receive it abroad. Furthermore, in his final years in power, he built lots of solar panels in the desert and was planning to introduce a pan-African currency independent of the dollar.

Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt
He recovered the Suez Canal from the West, kept Islamists at bay and all Egyptians under him had access to good quality public services, especially compared to subsequent leaders who have increasingly privatised and marketised everything in the country.

Juan Domingo Peron, Argentina
Not actually a dictator as such - he was freely elected - but he did become an autocrat in the way he operated. All the same, after being appointed Minister of Labour by a pre-existing military regime, he rallied round the trade unions and became freely elected in his own right as a civilian with a political programme that vastly improved the living standards of ordinary workers, expanded the welfare state and for a number of years all but axed poverty and unemployment in the country.

Fidel Castro, Cuba
Particularly in the context of this forum, this is perhaps the most controversial of the list. Nevertheless, human rights abuses under him were on a far smaller scale compared to both most other Communist regimes and many Latin American military regimes. Furthermore, the improvements in health, education, science and sport were enormous, and certainly he rescued Cuba from the incredible corruption and decadence of the Batista period.

[Jacques de Imbelloni]

What do you think about Sukarno, Park Chung-hee and Alfredo Stroessner?

[Tooting Carmen]

What do you think about Sukarno, Park Chung-hee and Alfredo Stroessner?

Sukarno wasn't really a dictator as such, and although his economic policies did lead to high inflation, he was far more beneficial for the poor than Suharto ever was. (I rank Suharto as possibly the worst Western-backed Cold War dictator, given his sheer brutality in Timor Leste and against internal dissidents).

Park Chung-Hee did help transform South Korea's economy, but he arguably made the country too subservient towards the US and there was too much oppression, with anyone who even marginally dissented being accused of "collaborating with the North".

Alfredo Stroessner was crap - a lot of human rights abuses, corruption and kept Paraguay isolated and nondescript.

[Cernunnos]

"Antonio da Oliveira Salazar, Portugal
Before his rise to power, Portugal had by some distance the worst literacy rate in Western Europe, and its currency collapsed something like three times in fifteen years. However, after rising to the top in a military regime which originally appointed him Minister for the Economy, he stabilised the country's finances and instigated a large schoolbuilding and literacy campaign which proved highly successful. While there were cases of dissident students and intellectuals being imprisoned, in comparison to many other dictatorships in Europe - notably in neighbouring Spain - it was much milder."

Well go tell that to my grandaunt, a single mother who lost his only son in his 20's in Africa for a non sense war.

[Tooting Carmen]

"Antonio da Oliveira Salazar, Portugal
Before his rise to power, Portugal had by some distance the worst literacy rate in Western Europe, and its currency collapsed something like three times in fifteen years. However, after rising to the top in a military regime which originally appointed him Minister for the Economy, he stabilised the country's finances and instigated a large schoolbuilding and literacy campaign which proved highly successful. While there were cases of dissident students and intellectuals being imprisoned, in comparison to many other dictatorships in Europe - notably in neighbouring Spain - it was much milder."

Well go tell that to my grandaunt, a single mother who lost his only son in his 20's in Africa for a non sense war.

(1) There is a reason I wrote 'relatively' in the OP.
(2) While I am no supporter of colonialism, all the same Salazar was hardly unique in wanting to preserve his country's Empire - so too did the established democracies like Britain in Kenya and Malaya and France in Algeria and Indochina.

[Cernunnos]

(1) There is a reason I wrote 'relatively' in the OP.
(2) While I am no supporter of colonialism, all the same Salazar was hardly unique in wanting to preserve his country's Empire - so too did the established democracies like Britain in Kenya and Malaya and France in Algeria and Indochina.

Portugal was a backward country with hundreds of thousands flooding into France even in the 60's and 70's.

[Tooting Carmen]

Portugal was a backward country with hundreds of thousands flooding into France even in the 60's and 70's.

But to some extent that confuses cause and effect - its impoverished, semi-feudal nature well preceded Salazar, and particularly regarding education he helped the country to catch up in many ways.

[Cernunnos]

But to some extent that confuses cause and effect - its impoverished, semi-feudal nature well preceded Salazar, and particularly regarding education he helped the country to catch up in many ways.

LOL "it preceded Salazar", so what? The guy was the dictator of the country for almost 40 fucking years, not like the banana republic of 1910-1926 or the decadent Monarchy.

Portugal was a decadent colonial empire with a huge oligarchy that cared so much about random people that it sent it's youth to die in Africa. All he did was putting the people out of misery in order to balance our finances, maintaining the neutrality in WW2 (something which I trully praise) and giving our economic power to a dozen of richass old dudes who industrialized the country.

Brilliant.

[Tooting Carmen]

LOL "it preceded Salazar", so what? The guy was the dictator of the country for almost 40 fucking years, not like the banana republic of 1910-1926 or the decadent Monarchy.

Portugal was a decadent colonial empire with a huge oligarchy that cared so much about random people that it sent it's youth to die in Africa. All he did was putting the people out of misery in order to balance our finances, maintaining the neutrality in WW2 (something which I trully praise) and giving our economic power to a dozen of richass old dudes who industrialized the country.

Brilliant.

My point is that, while even today Portugal is still one of the poorer nations in Western Europe, his reforms regarding healthcare and education in particular helped the country catch up somewhat compared to what it used to be like. Anyway, what do you think of the others on my list?

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

Salazar to me was the greatest statesman this country ever had during our Republican era. I can not think of any other statesman who could remotely measure up to him. His importance goes way beyond economic measures since there are strong historical indicators that Portugal could potentially not even exist today if it weren't for him. Before Salazar the Republic was an entire mess, 48 different governments, 8 presidents and 8 general elections in just 15 years. Constant protests and coup d'etat attempts, with the Communists\Anarchists potentially being able to seize power as they did in Catalonia, which most likely would lead to an invasion of Francoist forces and end any possibility for neutrality in the second world war. From them on we can only hypothetically speculate what the outcome would have been but most likely the country would have been destroyed like the majority of the nations that took part in conflicts during that era.