Would you mind posting this in the discussion group instead?
I'll answer there more fully, but here briefly:
1) Supports the urban and rural petit-bourgeoisie who then rally behind said leader
2) It's not fair to characterize the leader as a dictator, although constitutionally he should be stronger than the strongest Latin American caudillo ("Comparative Presidential Systems")
3) The cult of personality is based on peasant politics, yes
4) The competing parties of order and liberty (i.e., the socially conservative and liberal parties) are the key to my statement of "it's not fair" above, because the Caesar should be subject to the whims of the governing party's "politburo" - if his coalition wins election after election over the opposite coalition, and if he himself is popular, then he can stay in office as long as Todor Zhivkov (Bulgarian strongman heading the CP then), but the "politburo" of the coalition should be able to oust him if he concocts "hare-brained" schemes and pulls a Khrushchev