It depends, right? Honneker vs the Kim dictatorship in N Korea. Honecker led to people “telling” on each other for gain (making stuff up to advance or get rid of a rival) but it wasn’t do much gulags. North Korea was/id diffetent. It’s there to repress and keep the status quo, nothing else. It’s very repressive.

So, ond can be like Singapore today, another can be like Venezuela today. Depends on the govt and whether it responds to its constituency.