Absolute monarchies are closely linked to the concept of "divine right." Absolute monarchs of the 1600s and 1700s (and earlier) would usually claim that God had chosen them to rule, and to question the monarch was to question God. A "dictatorship" is not the best example of a government based on "divine right." More often, dictators rule with complete power not because they think God or religion has placed them there, but because they have the power to rule or because they have a "vision" of what the country should look like or do. This is an important distinction to remember.