Two crossed swords towering 40 metres over a Baghdad street commemorate Saddam Hussein's declaration of "victory" in the Iran-Iraq war of the late 1980s. It's not widely accepted that either country won the war. The triumphal arched swords are allegedly based on a sketch by Saddam, who designed many monuments as part of his towering personality cult. (THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images)

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"There is a messianic sense of the future where a beautiful world awaits after the travails and bloodshed that are necessary to purify the planet." — Tim Wohlforth, author of On the Edge: Political Cults of the Right and the Left

Take lashings of sycophancy, add reports of supernatural abilities in a pliant state media and throw in a ruthless security apparatus to punish those who dare to dissent and what do you have? The time-honoured ingredients of the political personality cult —on full display recently as North Korea celebrated the 65th birthday of Kim Jong-il.

When it comes to state-run cults of the personality, Kim is definitely the last man standing. Once — in the heyday of communism — there were many systems where sycophancy and belief in supernatural powers propped up an authoritarian regime. Now, North Korea's well-coiffed "Dear Leader" is alone.

Until late last year, he was in good company with Saparmurat Niyazov of the Central Asian republic of Turkmenistan. Niyazov basked in the title Turkmenbashi, or "Father of All the Turkmens."

He died late last year and his legacy is still uncertain. But so far, his successor seems to be distancing himself from the myth-making and excesses of Niyazov's 16-year rule.

The 20th century's two most egregious personality cults were probably those surrounding Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong. Both presided over the deaths of tens of millions of their citizens while representing themselves as benign guardians of their country's ideals. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin became a cult figure only after his death and China has avoided enshrining Mao's modern successors as anything other than strong leaders.

Personality cults have seemed to go hand-in-hand with communist politics. Writer Tim Wohlforth — himself a former Trotskyist — says Marxist-Leninist ideology has more in common with religion than mainstream politics. Wohlforth is also the author of On the Edge, Political Cults of the Left and Right.

"It's about vision, about an elite that has all the insights into how to behave and how the leader, or the god, behaves," Wohlforth told CBC.ca. "There is a messianic sense of the future where a beautiful world awaits after the travails and bloodshed that are necessary to purify the planet."

Romania's North Korean import

Cult leaders learn from each other, according to Prof. Charles Burton of Brock University in St. Catharine's, Ont. The Romanian communist leader, Nicolae Ceausescu, established a personality cult around himself and his wife, Elena, after a visit to North Korea in 1971, Burton says.

"He saw the sycophancy around Kim Il Sung [father of Kim Jong-il.] and the genuine devotion of North Koreans who didn't know any differently so he set out to build that in Romania." Not all cults of personality arose in communist countries, Burton points out. He says Nazi Germany made much of Adolf Hitler's personality and thoughts although without elevating him to supernatural status. Other examples include Idi Amin, Uganda's former president, and of course, Saddam Hussein. In Argentina, Juan and Eva Peron fostered separate personality cults that outlived them. The preserved bodies of both are still venerated — and vilified — by many Argentines.

"In Latin America, you have the predisposition to strong-man, el Caudillo, politics," says Wohlforth, "and this can fit into personality cults. Hugo Chavez in Venezeula might be on his way to cult status, but at least he puts his money where his mouth is and distributes oil revenues to the poor."

The drawbacks of political personality cults are many and obvious. There are no checks and balances, sycophants can't or won't allow bad news to filter through to the leader and brutal repression is the response to both public doubt and paranoia at the top.

But Burton warns of an even greater danger. In North Korea, he says, ordinary people sincerely believe in the infallibility of Kim Jong-il. For more than 50 years, they've been ruled by his family's personality cult. It's central to their lives. What happens, Burton asks, when the "Dear Leader" dies or is toppled from power?

Father figures and authority

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"In North Korea, [the personality cult] is a deeply held, spiritual point of view and the trauma of change can't be underestimated." — Professor Charles Burton

"In China, they very deliberately played down Mao Zedong after his death in 1976, and this process of 'de-Maoificiation' worked," Burton says. "But in North Korea, Kim and his father are central to every aspect of life. It's a deeply held, spiritual point of view and the trauma of change can't be underestimated. Democracy or any other major loosening up isn't just going to happen spontaneously there."

There's also the question of whether a North Korean or Turkmen style personality cult can be created and survive in today's world of mass media and instant access to the Internet. It may seem unlikely, but experts rule nothing out.

"Human nature predisposes us to [having] father figures and authority," says Wohlforth. "We long to be part of a group and to be against those outside the group. There'll always be someone who wants to exploit those feelings for their own ends."

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