Want to know how to create a dictatorship? Here's a how to courtesy of WashTimes:
There are three things all aspiring dictatorships seek to control or destroy. The first is private property. Undermining this institution encourages economic dependency on the state while simultaneously stripping people of private resources they might use to support political opposition. Thus we see Mr. Chavez nationalizing various industries, confiscating land, and attempting to control private companies, especially in the oil industry.
A second target of dictatorships is the family. Most such regimes seek to weaken family loyalties by turning children and parents against each other and encouraging everyone to regard the state as an alternative parent. Here Mr. Chavez's moves have involved attempting to militarize as many young people as possible, and his education law which will, Cardinal Urosa Savino believes, result in the "politicization and ideologizing of education" and diminish parents' ability to control their children's education -- especially their religious education.
This brings us to the third objective of any dictatorship: suppression of religious liberty. The autonomy enjoyed by the church creates a sphere of activity independent of the state. Invariably this results in dictators attempting to demolish religious faith, as one saw in the Soviet Union, or a Kulturkampf against churches, as occurred under the Nazi regime.
