Dictatorship & Underdevelopment DICTATORSHIP AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT Dictatorship

Dictatorship, as a form of government, has fallen into opprobrium in the course of the 20th century. This was not always the case. "Dictator" was originally a Roman constitutional office, exercising absolute powers for a limited term during emergencies. Later, with repeated renewals of authority extending it to an indefinite term, it was used or abused by Julius Caesar before his assassination.

In modern times "dictator" has come to mean an autocratic ruler whose power is not hereditary or otherwise traditional in origin; that is, in contrast to an autocratic monarch. This writer is not aware of any ruler of modern times who has self-adopted it as a title, but in the earlier part of the 20th century the connotations of the word were not universally negative. In Marxist-Leninist theory the "dictatorship of the proletariat" was a necessary step on the road to communism (though the term implied the authority of the Communist Party rather than necessarily an individual autocrat). In fascist ideology, personal dictatorship was fully embraced as superior to constitutionalism. Fascist leaders assumed titles, Duce and Fuehrer, that plainly connoted autocratic personal rule.

Since 1945, however, the use of such overtly dictatorial titles has fallen out of fashion. Even the most autocratic and personalist leaders of the last half-century have tended to honor constitutionalism in the breach by adopting titles like president. In the case of Haiti under the Duvaliers, as w

the labor required is highly specialized. Moreover, most of the labor involved is in the very beginning of the process -- drilling wells. Once drilled, the wells operate with minimal (and even more highly technical) labor support. All of this is in contrast to other extractive industries, such as mining (especially underground mining), or of plantation economies (essentially biological extraction through agriculture), both of which require a much more extensive and ongoing labor input. Miners or plantation peasants in Third World countries may be harshly exploited, but they are necessary to the operation. In contrast, oil operations can be nearly cut off from their social surroundings, the functional equivalent of an offshore oil rig at sea. The existence or absence of a local population is merely incidental to the oil industry. Until about 1970, the government and elites of the countries where they operated were nearly as incidental to the oil industry. Oil pricing, like oil operations, was in the hands of the companies, particularly the "seven sisters" international oil giants. All that changed with the rise of OPEC. Control over pricing shifted from the companies to the governments (and thus elites) of the oil-pro