Dictatorship

There has been, recently, a growing chorus of doubt and concern about whether Hugo Chavez was making himself into a dictator. He was proposing eliminating term limits for the president, granting himself extraordinary powers to legislate and introducing socialist and cooperative property forms among other things. All of this was worrisome save one fact: he was proposing to accomplish this via a referendum. Indeed, he lost the referendum and has accepted that fact, though he reserves an interest in continuing to pursue those objectives in the future. On reflection, this is not dictatorship. Rather, it's democracy.

Dictatorship would be where the leader simply declares the law with no concern for legislative process. Alternatively, the leader might accept legislation and then issue statements, written and verbal, describing to what extent and in what way he would enforce the legislation. Often dictators shun elections. In other instances they accept the elective process, but subvert it. This can be done by denying likely opponents the ability to vote, or by falsifying the vote or by using other authorities, such as the judicial, to declare an election for the dictator when, in fact, he has lost.

Another sign of dictatorship is the lack of Habeus Corpus, arrest without charges, indefinite detention without legal representation or trial and the use of torture. There is no indication that Hugo Chavez does any of these things.