ABSTRACT
The concept of dictatorship denotes either a republican institution whereby liberal freedoms are suspended to deal with a crisis that threatens the reproduction of the state, or a type of regime that involves not just the use of violence but also a law-generating activity on behalf of the state that may amount to an alteration of the constitutional arrangement. This means that the concept of dictatorship and the different types of the dictatorial form have to be assessed and can only be understood in their historical context. The concept of class dictatorship is not just about the form of government but about class rule. This is why its analysis cannot be carried out in the abstract, but always in concrete relation to the rule of a specific class: the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie or the dictatorship of the proletariat.
