What is the difference between Monarchy and Dictatorship?

Answer 1

Monarchy as a basis of government can be a form of Dictatorship and theoretically has a King or Emperor as the executive and a set of nobles or nobility with privileges that the King may, or may not be able to take away. The nobility may have influence on a monarch, but ultimately the monarch dictates legislative functions. The typical Western archetype of dictatorship now prevalent in mass media is when executive, legislative and even judicial function is represented in one person who is the boss, eg King Abdullah, Saddam or Gaddafi? This narrow conception of dictatorship is useful in demarcating in the public mind celebrated monarchical dictatorships of recent Western history from other forms of dictatorship outside the West. Thus the same people who celebrate the fall of a third world dictator celebrate a visit by the English Queen, unable to draw parallels between the two; between the other's dictatorship of today, and their own dictatorships of recent history. A monarchy has succession of power based on birth right but a dictatorship does not necessarily have the same.

Answer 2

A dictator gets into "office" through force (bullying his way on), while a monarchy (the crown) is passed through the family, to the next in line for the throne so to say. Very Unique forms of Government indeed