Comment by TMWNN
9 hours ago
> When it collapsed, East Germany was still led by the same people who had created it. The Berlin Wall only existed for 28 years. North Korea is a multi-generational prison.
Excellent point. Something that refutes another of Asimov's critiques in his review, that tyrannies inevitably end through tyrants' deaths, or at least become milder in their oppression. Admittedly he wrote the review in 1980, back when a) the first Kim was still in power and b) no one in the West saw North Korea as anything other than an "ordinary" Communist state—no awareness of Juche, etc.—but still.
North Korea is rather exceptional though. Few dictatorships manage even one smooth succession, let alone two.
Monarchies
A lot of monarchies aren't really stable across two or more successions either.
It depends on one's definition of dictatorship. I personally do not believe, for instance, the British Crown is one such instance.
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