How authoritarian rule was maintained

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Legal methods, use of force, propaganda, and popular support — regimes usually combine all four, not just one.

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Special rights a government claims during a crisis, letting it rule without normal legal limits — used by Hitler (1933 Reichstag Fire Decree) and Stalin to justify one-party control.

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Stalin's secret police in the USSR — arrested, interrogated and executed people accused of being 'enemies of the people' during the Great Purge.

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Stalin's campaign of arrests, show trials and executions targeting the Communist Party, army and ordinary citizens — killed roughly 700,000 people, an example of force-based maintenance of power.

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Building up a leader's image as a wise, almost superhuman figure through propaganda — posters, songs, statues and staged events, e.g. Stalin as 'Father of Nations'.

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Neighbourhood committees Castro set up across Cuba from 1960 — organised community welfare but also watched for counter-revolutionary activity, blending genuine mobilisation with surveillance.

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Sent young volunteers to teach reading across Cuba, cutting illiteracy from about 23% to under 4% in a year — built real popular support for Castro's government.

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The USSR under Stalin relied heavily on terror and forced compliance (Great Purge, gulags); Castro's Cuba relied more on genuine welfare delivery and mass mobilisation (literacy, healthcare, CDRs), though both used propaganda and one-party control.

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Because regimes can deliver real material gains (land, healthcare, literacy, jobs) that create authentic loyalty among many citizens, alongside — not only instead of — coercion.

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The Soviet system of forced-labour camps, used to imprison and punish political prisoners and helped instil fear across society.

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Legal and coercive tools (courts, police, army) often continue from the old regime and are simply redirected; propaganda and mass organisations are usually new tools built by the authoritarian government.

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Victims of purges and camps emphasise terror and fear; loyal supporters and beneficiaries of welfare programmes emphasise genuine achievement and pride — both perspectives can be true of the same regime at once.