Question

How do modern dictators typically govern their countries?

Answer 1

Dictators rely heavily on manipulating their citizens. Through constant propaganda and and typically lack of free press or any form of free speech like we have in the USA. One current example worth checking out is North Korea, there are incredibly troubling accounts from escaped "defectors". Check out at least one of these documentaries:
"Crossing the Line" -2006
"Propaganda Game" -2015
"Under the Sun" -2015

Answer 2

Moder dictators typically govern their countries through totalitarian dictatorships.

Step-by-step explanation:

Totalitarianism is the most modern type of dictatorial regime. In addition to repression, ideology and the leader, there is the presence of the regime in every area of society. The concept is developed in The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt. The author believes that totalitarianism needs three factors in order to develop: a mass industrial society, the persistence of a divided world and the development of modern technology. According to Arendt the distinctive elements of totalitarianism are ideology and the use of terror, and the maximum expression of the same is the lager (Nazi Germany) and the gulag (Soviet Union), where the erasure of individuality occurs through an absolute dominion on people. Examples were Stalinism in U.R.S.S. and the National Socialism of Adolf Hitler in Germany. A current example is the North Korean regime.