When Benito Mussolini visited Sicily after he took power, got an argument with a local Mafia cappo.
The cappo ordered that nobody to go Mussolini meeting next day.
Nobody did attend.
Obviously the first to disobey would be killed and it was easier for people to stay in a safe zone.
and applaud the speeches of Stalin or Ceausescu and cry at Kim Jong Il funeral.
After the initial violence of the dictatorship a truce between people and dictatorship is accepted from both sides.
You obey and you will be safe.The dictators will no longer seek actively enemy of the state.
This truce maintained so long conditions are not getting worse.
But sometimes the conditions are changing because of uncontrollable factors: a famine, a climatic change or even the winter.
I am surprised that in Scandinavian countries they no have known dictators, while Africa is full of them.
Of course there are a other factors, that make this difference. Russia is a northern country, yet it's entire history consists of autocrats and evil dictators.
But except Russia and the Warsaw pact countries, it seems that Europe and North America had fewer periods of
dictatorships.
In Europe, the southern part had more periods of dictatorship during 20-th century:
Portugal 48 years of Salazar rule,
Spain ruled by Franco for 36 years,
Italy had Benito Mussolini for 21 years,
Greece had 15 years of dictatorship (8 years before the WW2+ colonel regime).
Albania had 15 years of dictatorship under Zogu reign prior to word war 2
Yugoslavia had 10 years from 1929 till 1939
In west:Germany had 12 years of dictatorship under Hitler. The neighbouring countries France,Belgium,Netherlands,Luxembourg,Denmark and Norway didn't had a dictatorship till the conquest of Hitler.
The dictatorships from 1945 in the Eastern Europe and Balkan I consider them imposed by soviet tanks. Once the Soviets decided that that they will not intervene in their domestic affairs, these dictatorships fell, in 1989. So I will consider only the years of dictatorship prior to 1945:
Poland had 13 years of authoritarianism till 1939
Romania had 6 years of dictatorship till 1944
Bulgaria had 10 years of dictatorship from 1935 till 1945
In conclusion a steady climate,a land with enough agricultural resources or with enough mineral resources favours maintenance of the status quo, and of the dictatorship if it settles it.
