Social dictatorship

Dictatorial leadership of social groupings, involving minority control or dictatorship of the majority, may be ethnic, religious, linguistic, ideological, professional or cross-cultural in character. Social dictatorship may lead ultimately to political dictatorship if the group in question is a predominant national community. It may lead to social conflict and disintegration.

In some ex-colonial and pluralistic societies, a class system and remnants of colonialism help maintain minority control. Effective control may be attained illegally by minority terrorist campaigns, facilitated by modern sophisticated weaponry.