I think in the context of a small organisation it can work quite well.
My church is effectively a benevolent dictatorship, the bloke who runs it was appointed by the dude who started it. The other members of the leadership team are appointed and when they need a new member they appoint them. No-one is voted for.
But we're a small church and it works quite well. They have regular meetings with us to update us on plans, they canvas opinion before making big changes. Overall it works fine. And I guess it worked OK in the middle ages when society was pretty simple and therefore the rules didn't have to be that complicated.
Now I guess it doesn't really work. Things are too complex for one person to understand it all and make the rules. Like how as we learn more about the body there are more specialisms in medicine.
I was sort of thinking of an elected dictator, which is a bit of an oxymoron. So that's where the authority would come from. But someone sensible who could be trusted to make sensible decisions. I vote Stephen Fry, he's generally right about stuff. Or me