Observations on dictators

BBC's Great Britons might have seemed a quintessentially British TV programming idea - but since its success here in 2002 it has become a global phenomenon generating a string of copycat shows around the world.

Unlike in the UK, where Winston Churchill was the very predictable winner, some of the polls have generated perverse results, reopening bitter memories of the past.

The most shocking was the most recent, in Portugal, with the election of António Salazar as "Os Grandes Portugueses" (the greatest Portuguese). The founder and leader of the fascist-style New State party - who ruled Portugal as de facto dictator from 1932-68 - won more than 40 per cent of the vote, to the embarrassment of many of his compatriots. While not in the same league as dictators such as Hitler or Mussolini, his regime did have its dark side: he relied on a Gestapo-style secret police, the PIDE, to suppress dissidents and fight communism.

So how to interpret the result? Was it a true reflection of his popularity, or a concerted effort of multiple voting by admirers of the one-time strongman?

"It's partly a protest vote against the Portuguese government, which has broken numerous election pledges, partly a hankering for an idealised bygone era of clean, safe streets," says Manuel Azevedo, publisher of Lusitania, a paper for expat Portuguese. "Perhaps most of all, though, it is simply a reflection of the times we live in, an age of disillusionment." It's not the first such poll to cause embarrassment.

Three years ago the openly gay right-wing populist Pim Fortuyn -who was assassinated in 2002 - topped the Netherlands' "Greatest Dutchman/woman" poll, ahead of Rembrandt and Van Gogh, to the shame of many of his countrymen.

To make matters worse, it was later announced that William of Orange had received more votes, but only the votes that were counted before the end of the programme counted, so Fortuyn remained the winner.

Given the popularity of these copycat Great Britons contests, it is perhaps fortunate that Spain and Italy have not held similar votes. Franco would poll respectably in Spain, where he retains considerable residual support among the older generation. Mussolini may be less revered in Italy, but his granddaughter Alessandra Mussolini has managed to carve out a political career.

Germany's ZDF had a novel way of preventing controversial results. The public service channel drew up a 300-strong list of nominees - excluding Hitler and other Nazis along with Kaiser Wilhelm and other military chiefs.

The winner of its refreshingly fascist-free poll to find the Greatest German - rebranded "Unsere Besten" (Our Best) - was Konrad Adenauer, the former west German chancellor, with Martin Luther in second place and Karl Marx in third place.

Such "shortlist" type polls may raise freedom of speech issues. But perhaps it's a price worth paying to keep this particular genie bottled.

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