Current ruling national leaders in authoritarian states 2023, by time in office

The longest serving state leader in an authoritarian country as of March 2023 was Paul Biya, the current President of Cameroon. However, some see Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the President of Equatorial Guinea, as the longest ruling leader because Biya was Prime Minister from 1975 to 1982 before assuming the role of President. Obiang has ruled Equatorial Guinea since 1979, meaning that he has held office for 43 years. Obiang Mbasogo seized power in a coup d'etat from his uncle and his son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, is the country's vice president and posed to be the country's next President after his father.

Differences of authoritarianism

The list of the longest serving authoritarian leaders only shows a limited picture of authoritarian states. Some authoritarian countries change rulers regularly, but not through free and fair elections. The individual characteristics of Obiang's personal rule in Equatorial Guinea and the Islamic Republic under Ali Khamenei in Iran are substantial. What all these regimes have in common is the oppression of a political opposition through coercive means and the absence of free and fair elections. Over the past ten years, there has been a decline in liberal democracies, but the number of democracies in the world is still significantly higher today than it was after the end of the Cold War.

The most authoritarian states

A range of rankings weighting different factors try to measure the level of democracy and freedom in the world. Freedom House's Freedom in the World is probably the most referred to, but the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) is also widely referred to as it includes more dimensions than Freedom House's. In 2022, Afghanistan was ranked as the least democratic country in the world by the EIU, while Norway ranked as the most democratic.