But on a range of issues, his patience, stubbornness and absolute intolerance of dissent may be paying off.He owes his new lease on political life to the incompetence or fatigue of his enemies, to clever diplomatic footwork and to lucky circumstances.
The result of Gaddafi's theory, underlined with absolute intolerance of dissent or alternative voices, was the hollowing out of Libyan society, with all vestiges of constitutionality, civil society and authentic political participation eradicated.
But, with support from Russia, Mr. Lukashenko has since amassed near absolute powers, permitting little dissent or private enterprise.
Burma was ruled for almost half a century by a military junta that stifled almost all dissent and wielded absolute power.
From 1962 to 2011, the country was ruled by a military junta that suppressed almost all dissent and wielded absolute power in the face of international condemnation and sanctions.
Qatar also has an absolute monarchy and virtually no domestic dissent.
In his intolerance for dissent, however, he is absolute and unyielding, and, once the Rhodesian state had been dismantled, he recognized that whites were no longer a threat to him.
Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy that does not permit public dissent.
Like other absolute rulers on the continent, Mr. Bongo curtailed dissent, opposition and the press.
The government of Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy that usually does not tolerate public dissent, always denies the accusations.
Dissent is even stirring under Saudi Arabia's absolute monarchy.
