This seems mostly true? Very very very rarely is there a dictator unchecked in their power.
Defending the analogy as charitably as I can, I think there are two separate questions here:
Do dictators need to share power in order to avoid getting overthrown?
Is a dictatorship almost inherently doomed to fail because it will inevitably get overthrown without “fundamental advances” in statecraft?
If (1) is true, then dictators can still have a good life living in a nice palace surrounded by hundreds of servants, ruling over vast territories, albeit without having complete control over their territory. Sharing some of your power and taking on a small, continuous risk of being overthrown might still be a good opportunity, if you ever get the chance to become a dictator. While you can’t be promised total control or zero risk of being overthrown, the benefits of becoming a dictator could easily be worth it in this case, depending on your appetite for risk.
If (2) is true, then becoming a dictator is a really bad idea for almost anyone, except for those who have solved “fundamental problems” in statecraft that supposedly make long-term stable dictatorships nearly-impossible. For everyone else who hasn’t solved these problems, the predictable result of becoming a dictator is that you’ll soon be overthrown, and you’ll never actually get to live the nice palace life with hundreds of servants.
then dictators can still have a good life living in a nice palace surrounded by hundreds of servants, ruling over fast territories, albeit without having complete control over their territory
Does Kim Jong Un really share his power?
My impression is that he does basically have complete control over all of his territory
He does, Kim Jong Un is mainly beholden to China, and China would rather keep the state stable & unlikely to grow in population, economy, or power so that it can remain a big & unappetizing buffer zone in case of a Japanese or Western invasion.
This involves China giving him the means to rule absolutely over his subjects, as long as he doesn’t bestow political rights to them, and isn’t too annoying. He can annoy them with nuclear tests, but that gives China an easy way of scoring diplomatic points by denouncing such tests, makes the state an even worse invasion prospect, committing China to a strict nuclear deterrence policy in that area, without China having to act crazy themselves.
I mean, I don’t think China in practice orders him around. Obviously they are a geopolitically ally and thus have power, but democratic countries are also influenced by their geopolitical allies, especially the more powerful allies like the USA or China. KJU is no different in this respect, the difference is he has full domestic control for himself and his entire family bloodline.
The argument CCP Grey makes is that fundamentally one of the issues with dictatorships is at least a human dictator is unable to actually rule alone. Power and bribes must be given to “keys” : people who control the critical parts of the government. And this is likely recursive, for example the highest military leader must bribe and empower his generals and so on.
This is why most of the resources of the dictatorship must be given in bribes, corruption, and for petty exercises of authority to the highest ranking members of the government.
This is Greys argument for why dictatorships tend to be poor, with less reinvestment in the population, and generally not great for the population living in them. That even a dictator who wants to make his or her country wealthy and successful can’t. (Most dictatorships survive by extracting resources and selling them, which can be done by foreign expertise, essentially making the country only have money because it happens to sit on top of land with a resource under it. China seems to be an exception and perhaps China is not actually a dictatorship.)
Defending the analogy as charitably as I can, I think there are two separate questions here:
Do dictators need to share power in order to avoid getting overthrown?
Is a dictatorship almost inherently doomed to fail because it will inevitably get overthrown without “fundamental advances” in statecraft?
If (1) is true, then dictators can still have a good life living in a nice palace surrounded by hundreds of servants, ruling over vast territories, albeit without having complete control over their territory. Sharing some of your power and taking on a small, continuous risk of being overthrown might still be a good opportunity, if you ever get the chance to become a dictator. While you can’t be promised total control or zero risk of being overthrown, the benefits of becoming a dictator could easily be worth it in this case, depending on your appetite for risk.
If (2) is true, then becoming a dictator is a really bad idea for almost anyone, except for those who have solved “fundamental problems” in statecraft that supposedly make long-term stable dictatorships nearly-impossible. For everyone else who hasn’t solved these problems, the predictable result of becoming a dictator is that you’ll soon be overthrown, and you’ll never actually get to live the nice palace life with hundreds of servants.
Does Kim Jong Un really share his power?
My impression is that he does basically have complete control over all of his territory
He does, Kim Jong Un is mainly beholden to China, and China would rather keep the state stable & unlikely to grow in population, economy, or power so that it can remain a big & unappetizing buffer zone in case of a Japanese or Western invasion.
This involves China giving him the means to rule absolutely over his subjects, as long as he doesn’t bestow political rights to them, and isn’t too annoying. He can annoy them with nuclear tests, but that gives China an easy way of scoring diplomatic points by denouncing such tests, makes the state an even worse invasion prospect, committing China to a strict nuclear deterrence policy in that area, without China having to act crazy themselves.
I mean, I don’t think China in practice orders him around. Obviously they are a geopolitically ally and thus have power, but democratic countries are also influenced by their geopolitical allies, especially the more powerful allies like the USA or China. KJU is no different in this respect, the difference is he has full domestic control for himself and his entire family bloodline.
https://youtu.be/rStL7niR7gs?si=63TXDzt_hf68u9_r
The argument CCP Grey makes is that fundamentally one of the issues with dictatorships is at least a human dictator is unable to actually rule alone. Power and bribes must be given to “keys” : people who control the critical parts of the government. And this is likely recursive, for example the highest military leader must bribe and empower his generals and so on.
This is why most of the resources of the dictatorship must be given in bribes, corruption, and for petty exercises of authority to the highest ranking members of the government.
This is Greys argument for why dictatorships tend to be poor, with less reinvestment in the population, and generally not great for the population living in them. That even a dictator who wants to make his or her country wealthy and successful can’t. (Most dictatorships survive by extracting resources and selling them, which can be done by foreign expertise, essentially making the country only have money because it happens to sit on top of land with a resource under it. China seems to be an exception and perhaps China is not actually a dictatorship.)