Course Description

History is fraught with dictators who were democratically elected or took over countries by force. The majority of dictators have done little to help their citizens or to improve the countries they led. Dictators tend to take advantage of their people and drain their country’s resources for personal enrichment. Dictators are known to imprison their opponents, stifle freedoms and start wars that lead to national suffering. So why are dictators allowed to assume leadership positions? And why is it so difficult to remove dictators from power? Is it their iron grip on power? Or is it the phenomenon of: Cult of Personality?

In this course we will explore why all walks of people are willing to blindly or be coerced to follow a dictator. We will accomplish this by identifying the common traits, personalities, and skills of past and current dictators. Through research we will find the common steps and the time proven formula that individuals use to become dictators. And, how they are able to remain in power.

Over the semester you will acquire knowledge, experience, and research skills to aid you in honing your critical thinking skills. At the end of the course, you will understand the warning signs of leaders who lean towards authoritarianism, the tools they use to achieve a takeover of government and how they remain in power.

Texts

Required:

Mesquita, Bruce; Smith, Alastair: The Dictator’s Handbook. Publisher: Public Affairs

Recommended:

Requirements

During the semester each student will research and analyze an assigned dictator, turn in a six to eight-page research paper with a bibliography and present their research findings to the class. The presentation is 30 minutes plus an additional 10 minutes for questions. 

Every week students will research one article pertaining to the dictator that was presented in class. As a class, we will discuss your findings on the dictator and analyze what methods they used to achieve power.

About the Instructor(s): Tim Goloversic

Tim is a retired Army Aviation Officer and Desert Storm combat veteran. He was a Commander in Hungary and a Platoon Leader in Bosnia as part of the peacekeeping operations enforcing the Dayton Peace Accords. Basically, he was deployed to evict dictators or to clean up the mess they left behind. He has experience working with the United Nations and NATO. In addition, Tim has been involved in nation building in the Philippines.