The culture of dictatorship number of words=768

         As most of you might know by now dictatorship has been for the past decades in developing countries. Dictatorship seem to be an ongoing political situation in third world countries. Although other countries in the first world have tried for many years now to bring democracy in third world countries, it has been a complete failure for example in Thailand and most of the middle eastern countries. This failure might be because dictatorship in those countries has deeper roots. To understand the roots of dictatorship one has to look at the culture in those countries. Most third world countries have a culture of submission. The culture of submission is “ the voluntary submission of your dignity and perhaps your humanity to another human being”(''Rewrite of the Africa Dictator Handbook'').

        First let's look at African countries for example, most African countries are dictatorships. Most African countries before colonization were lead by Kings and elders, Africans were submissive to their leader. In some countries for example, there were a royal tribe like Ugandan Baganda tribe to which other tribes gave total respect and control over them. This history of cultural submission doesn't only revolve around the pres-colonial time but also during colonization. When white people came to Africa, the kings thought of them as being interesting. When the king honored those colonizers, the citizens or Africans became “naturally submissive to the white people” (''Rewrite of the Africa Dictator Handbook'').

       Due this cultural relationship between leaders and citizens most African countries took the path of dictatorship since it had more resemblance to their culture. “It can be seen that when someone becomes president in an African country, how all the chief, leaders and citizens will bow down and surrender their humanity to the new leader so easily without any examination”(''Rewrite of the Africa Dictator Handbook''). With this submission no one dears to question the leader or any new policies in those countries that is why sometimes you might find a president who has been on power for 20 years or more. For example in Zimbabwe, their president Robert Mugabe has been who is now 89 years of age has been on power for 33 years.

     African cultures have played in favor of Robert Mugabe and other dictators like him. Through out their culture/history they have been submissive which made it hard for them to contradict the leader since all they knew was how to be submissive. “They feared to hold the leader accountable hinders the people's ability to fight against any abuse of power, corruption and injustice”(''Rewrite of the Africa Dictator Handbook''). The power sharing and power distribution system is far from the culture of Africa, in order to incorporate them, the people of African must be the ones wanting to change it not foreigners.

     African countries are not the only ones with a culture that influences dictatorship but also Middle Eastern countries. Most Middle-eastern countries are Muslim. Muslim practice Islam as their religion. “The word Islam means ''submission'', period”(''Brutality and Dictatorship''). Which brings us back to the culture of submission. In this religion, Muslim follow the teachings of the “Qur’an and strive to keep the Five Pillars” (''Brutality and Dictatorship''). More to that, Muslim means, a person who submits to Allah. “ Islam in many ways trains people not to govern themselves but to be governed by dictates, Muslim countries almost always are run by dictators”(''Brutality and Dictatorship''). Islam as it is clearly explained above can lead to dictatorship. Some states in the middle east wanted to incorporated Islamic laws in their politics. These laws affect mostly women in general. “Customary laws,Islamic laws, imported European laws, and reformed versions of Islamic laws affect women in''varying degrees in the different middle Eastern legal systems, and the status of women doesn't seem to have been settled in any of them”(''Law and Women in the Middle East | Cultural Survival'' ). An example, a woman can not ask for a divorce unless her husband agrees.

       One might say that the culture that leads to dictatorship is a culture of submission. This submission culture is reflected through religion and royalty/kingdoms in third world countries like Africa and middle east. This culture played a big role in increasing the resistance of dictators on power by bringing fear. The fear of contradicting a more powerful person. This fear then increased the perspective of having more dictatorships grow in those kind of countries. Foreigners trying to change the system have to know that it is a culture and unless the people in the culture wants to change the system, it is practically really hard to change it.

MLA citation of my sources

1. "Law and Women in the Middle East | Cultural Survival."Law and Women in the Middle East Cultural Survival. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.
2. "Rewrite of the Africa Dictator Handbook." Editorial.Africa New School of Thoughts n.d.: n. pag. Print.
3. "The Christian Broadcasting Network."Brutality and Dictatorship: How Islam Affects Society: Spiritual Life on CBN.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2013.
4. "Cultural Values, Not Dictators like Libya's Qaddafi, Are Chief Obstacle to Arab Progress."The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2013.