While elections are banned in conventional dictatorships, elections are regularly held in electoral dictatorships. But to ensure their continuous grip on power, the electoral dictators—who identify as presidents and prime ministers—hold uncompetitive and unfair elections after aggressively suppressing political opponents.

In 2016, an estimated 1.94 billion people lived in electoral dictatorships.

In 2025, 3.77 billion people did.

If Republicans retain control of Congress in the midterms, then an electoral dictatorship is likely to emerge in the United States.

— “The Global Rise of Electoral Dictatorships. Is the U.S. Next? Midterms Could Decide,” Ibram X. Kendi, The Emancipator