Betegnelsen er blevet anvendt om ledere såsom [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]] ([[Tyrkiet]]),<ref>{{cite web|title=Benevolent Dictator? Thinking About MK Atatürk|url=http://turkeyfile.blogspot.com/2009/10/benevolent-dictator.html|work=Turkey File|date=19. oktober 2009}}</ref> [[Josip Broz Tito]] ([[Socialistiske Føderale Republik Jugoslavien|Jugoslavien]]),<ref name="shapiro">{{cite book|last1=Shapiro|first1=Susan|last2=Shapiro|first2=Ronald|title=The Curtain Rises: Oral Histories of the Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe|publisher=McFarland|year=2004|page=180|isbn=0-7864-1672-6|url=http://books.google.hr/books?id=oCqWFQ1WKlkC&pg=PA180&dq=tito+benevolent+dictator&hl=en&sa=X&ei=eZiVT8u1Io_NswahzJyVBA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=tito%20benevolent%20dictator&f=false|ref=Shapiro_2004}}<br />"...All Yugoslavs had educational opportunities, jobs, food, and housing regardless of nationality. Tito, seen by most as a benevolent dictator, brought peaceful co-existence to the Balkan region, a region historically synonymous with factionalism."</ref> [[Lee Kuan Yew]] ([[Singapore]]),<ref>{{Cite news|title = What Singapore can teach us|url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-singapore-can-teach-us/2012/05/02/gIQAlQEGwT_story.html|newspaper = The Washington Post|date = 2012-05-02|access-date = 2015-11-25|issn = 0190-8286|language = en-US|first = Matt|last = Miller}}</ref> [[Abdullah 2. af Jordan]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/10783/king-abdullah-ii-of-jordan-world-statesman|title=King Abdullah II of Jordan, World Statesman?|authors=Kifah and Jennifer|date=23. marts 2013}}</ref> [[Paul Kagame]] ([[Rwanda]]) og [[Qaboos bin Said al Said]] ([[Oman]]).
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