What is the difference between a dictator and a president??

Answer 1

In their origin, dictator relates to a fully-controlling military governor, who would be appointed to control all of Rome; the term lasted six months, but it was customary to resign once the military threat was vanquished; some even resigned a week after their appointment, as it was all about honor and respect for the republic.

A president comes from the concept of one who presides over meetings and votes. Therefore, the president of the Continental Congress (the first ever to hold the title of President of any sort) was simply the one who presided over the meeting, conducted votes and attendance, brought topics to the floor; somewhat like the American Speaker of the House.

Dictator has come to mean one who gained and continues to hold power through military might.

President refers to different offices; in non-monarchial countries (countries without a royalty) the President takes that place, as the Head of State, for example in France. The Prime Minister, meanwhile, is the equivalent of the American President, only he does not conduct ceremonies. This is the case in most parliamentary democracies as well, such as Israel. However, countries with governments like that of the U.S. have a President as the ultimate Head of State and Head of Government.

Answer 2

A dictator has no oversight. A president is given the right to rule by the people. A dicator can be benign. A president can be dictatorial causing war and terror. If it sounds like there is no difference, you are kind of right.

In general, on average, people are better off with presidents than dictators, for presidents are less often dictatorial then dictators. They have more constraints.

Answer 3

Dictators single-handedly controls the country and are in for life. A president (depending on the country), is president for only a certain amount of time and usually has to work with the country's other leaders.

Answer 4

It would appear there is little difference if you look around the world.
Seriously tho,
a president is an elected post.
a dictator is a leader that is autocratic. ie s/he (always a he) has absolute power over the operations of governemnt.

Answer 5

The difference's not in the title but rather in the person, the country's political situation, etc.

You can have the US president who's elected & can only serve 2 terms & you can also hve Fidel Castro, president of Cuba who's not elected by came to power by force...

Similarly, look at the communist countries, they usually have the word "People's reupblic of...", "Democratic Republic of..." whereas I haven't heard of any truly democratic country using the above phrases/titles.

Answer 6

a president is elected, a dictator elects himself