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Methodology

About Dictator Dashboard

Dictator Dashboard is a continuously updated directory of the world's dictators, strongman leaders, and fallen regimes. Here is how we decide who belongs on it, and how we keep entries current.

What this site tracks

We track three groups of leaders: current dictators, elected leaders whose governments show clear authoritarian tendencies (the Strongman Index), and leaders who have fallen from power. Each entry is a living page that we update as events unfold.

How we decide who is included

"Dictator," "autocrat," and "authoritarian leader" are used differently across political science, journalism, and everyday language. Rather than adopting a single outside classification wholesale, Dictator Dashboard applies its own inclusion criteria, informed by established research from organizations such as the V-Dem Institute and Freedom House.

  • Sustained concentration of political power in a single person or family, beyond what the formal constitution or electoral process would suggest.
  • Meaningful restriction of political opposition, through jailing, exile, disqualification, or systematic disadvantage.
  • Limits on independent institutions: courts, the press, electoral bodies, or the legislature.
  • Absence of a credible mechanism for peaceful removal from office.
Dictators vs. the Strongman Index Leaders in the main dictator list meet most or all of the criteria above. Leaders on the Strongman Index are democratically elected but have taken specific, documented actions that concentrate power or weaken checks and balances. We include them to track a trend, not to declare a verdict — see each profile for the specific evidence and, where relevant, the counter-arguments.

The Strongman Index score

The Strongman Index score shown on each profile is a 0-100 estimate of how far a leader's grip on power has moved from normal democratic constraint toward one-person rule. It weighs factors including tenure length, changes to term limits, control over media and courts, and treatment of political opponents. It is a editorial judgment informed by outside indices, not a precise scientific measurement, and we revise scores as circumstances change.

Sourcing and corrections

Every factual claim on this site should be traceable to a primary or reputable secondary source: wire services, national statistics offices, court records, and research bodies such as the V-Dem Institute, Freedom House, and the International Criminal Court. Sources are linked inline on each profile. If you spot an error or outdated fact, please get in touch and we will review it.