Best Dictator

President and Prime Minister of Zimbabwe for nearly four decades, a liberation movement hero whose rule was marked by economic collapse and hyperinflation before a 2017 military coup.

Alexander Lukashenko has served as President of Belarus since 1994, notable for maintaining an authoritarian regime often described as the last dictatorship in Europe.

Ferdinand Marcos was President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986, whose rule was defined by martial law and massive embezzlement.

Hafez al-Assad was the President of Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000, establishing a highly centralized authoritarian regime.

Muammar Gaddafi was a Libyan revolutionary and politician who seized power in a 1969 coup, ruling Libya as its absolute leader until his violent overthrow during the 2011 Arab Spring.

Augusto Pinochet was a Chilean military general and dictator who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, taking power in a coup d'état and implementing controversial free-market economic reforms.

Bashar al-Assad is the President of Syria who took power in 2000 and led the country during its devastating civil war starting in 2011.

Saddam Hussein was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003, leading his country into the Iran-Iraq War before being deposed in the 2003 US invasion.

Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until 1953 who transformed the nation into a global superpower through rapid industrialization and brutal purges.

Kim Jong-il was the Supreme Leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011, succeeding his father Kim Il-sung and maintaining the nation's strict isolationist and totalitarian policies.

Kim Jong-un is a North Korean politician who has served as the Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011, pursuing a nuclear weapons program in defiance of international sanctions.