Question

what is a radical form of government where basically all political power is in the hands of a dictator

Answer 1

The general term is a dictatorship (or autocracy): a system in which one person holds concentrated political power with little or no effective legal or institutional constraint. The more extreme form you probably mean is totalitarianism — a totalitarian dictatorship — where the ruler and state seek to control nearly every aspect of public and private life.

Short definitions and differences
- Dictatorship / autocracy: one person (or a very small group) exercises primary political authority; opposition, independent courts, and free elections are weak or absent.
- Authoritarianism: concentrated power with limited political pluralism, but society and economy may retain some autonomy from the state.
- Totalitarianism: an intensified form of dictatorship where the state attempts pervasive ideological control over politics, media, education, the economy and private life; uses mass mobilization, propaganda, and terror.
- Personalist dictatorship (or despotism): a regime built around a single leader’s personal power and patronage networks.
- Military junta: rule by military officers, often as a form of dictatorship.

Typical features
- No meaningful separation of powers or political competition
- Repression of dissent (censorship, arrests, surveillance)
- Centralized control over security forces and often the economy
- Cult of personality and propaganda (especially in totalitarian regimes)
- Weak or nonexistent rule of law and independent institutions

Historical examples
- Totalitarian: Nazi Germany, Stalin’s USSR, Maoist China (in certain periods), North Korea today
- Authoritarian/personalist: Augusto Pinochet’s Chile, Francisco Franco’s Spain
- Military juntas: Myanmar (recent decades), Chile (1973–1990 under Pinochet)

If you want, I can give a deeper comparison of these forms, list contemporary examples, or explain how political scientists classify and measure them.