Over the last hundred years the democratic form of government has been the most popular in the western world.  This has not been always the case, nor is it the case for the entire world.  There are a number of examples of governments that have not been ruled by the people nor for the people.
 List of Dictators   Links

List of Dictators 

Click on specific dictators to visit sites focused on them.
 

Absolute Power (Excellent site for general research on totalitarianism)  http://library.thinkquest.org/C004169/
Hitler and Stalin (Excellent biographical site for both dictators)        http://library.thinkquest.org/19092/