Hmmm…Abdelaziz Bouteflika (Algeria) can hardly be considered a dictator. He has been democratically elected (though the radical islamists couldn’t be candidates during the election…which certainly stain the democratic process…but certainly not to same extent that in country where there’s only one candidate who get 99% of the votes) and can be ousted during the next one. The parliament, the town councils, etc…are freely elected too (with the exclusion of the radical islamists, once again).
Algeria certainly has a lot of issues (the enormous political influence of the generals, the way the fight against radical islamism is conducted, the Kabyl issue [who ask for more autonomy/more recognition for their language, and are to some extent repressed…but the situation of the Kurds in Turkey is worst than that], corruption,etc…) and can’t be considered as a true democracy, but it’s a very long shot from being a dictatorship on par with North Korea or even Belarus or Tunisia.
Algeria definitely doesn’t belong to this list, IMO…
Given that Algeria appears on your list, I’ve some doubts about the validity of this “freedom house” survey…Anyway, your list covers countries and heads of state which are in very different situations. Cambodia and Burma can’t be compared in any significant way, nor can Lahoud in Lebanon be compared to Assad in Syria.
I also note that for instance Saudi Arabia is missing in your list of dictatorships. Which cast some more doubts on its validity. I’m not sure how exactly they rank countries, but the overall result seems very misleading to me…
The list was only current as of 2000, so it’s possible that conditions in some of the countries on the list have changed since then. Saudi Arabia was ranked as “not free” but, as I explained, I excluded it because it is a hereditary monarchy and monarchs don’t fit the conventional image of “dictators”.
Sorry i haven’t had time to return to this thread, stupid work! I’ll go over the list jklann wrote and see what i can come up with when i have some time. And i should have said in the OP not to list W, since i knew that would happen. One thing,
Are both of them still alive? (and am i correct in assuming this is two factions in the yet another civil war going on in Congo)
No, these are two different countries. Congo-Brazzaville is formally known as the “Republic of the Congo” and was the “French Congo” in colonial times. Congo-Kinshasa (not Congo-Leopoldville! :smack: There hasn’t been a Leopoldville since 1960! I can’t believe I wrote that–I guess it runs together with “Brazzaville” in my mind) is formally known as the “Democratic Repubic of the Congo” and was called “Zaire” under Mobutu.
Denis Sassou-Nguesso is alive and well. So is Joseph Kabila. It’s his father and predecessor, Laurent-Desire Kabila, who has been assassinated.
Just to add that the Congo-Kinshasa/Zaire was formerly the Belgian Congo of infamous memory.
Looking over jlklann’s list, and, “Thank you for posting it,” I see that almost all Islamic nations are on it. That’s got to mean somethng about something.