Control implies consent, at least at the state level. People who really don't want to be controlled won't be. That doesn't mean that they're happy, or that they're in an optimal situation at all, but control always comes with a degree of consent
And i agree that there is a certain romance to the great dictatorships. Some of history's most fascinating personalities end up there, and there is a certain majesty to it.
I would also look at Getulio Vargas of Brazil as another dictator who probably did good things (the Federal Republic they had proceeding him was quite the sham anyways, and he fixed things up rather well). There is often a certain threshold of human development in societies. After that threshold, democracy works, before that threshold, it usually doesn't. That's why you saw the Kerensky government in Russia completely collapse on itself, but why stable democratic systems in certain societies never seem to go away.
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.
