Note that the Nazis never had the support of the majority. It's a common myth that Hitler was elected, but he seized power at gunpoint after winning a minority of the legislature (albeit a sizeable minority).
Putin is similar, with electoral fraud substituting for naked force. Trump remains to be seen.
Erdogan, on the other hand, seems to legitimately enjoy the support of the majority. It may just be a quantitative difference, but it seems like an important one just the same.
That's how it works in multi-party parliaments. It's very rare for one party to get more than 50% so instead the largest minority party (or constellation of parties) gets selected to form a government. NSDAP was that party in Germany in 1932.
It's only in the American and English systems where there are only two options to choose from that a leader can claim "majority" support.
Yes, but in those other systems, the government rules with enough support from parliament to form a majority, even if their party doesn't have a majority on its own. The Nazis just pointed guns at everyone and said, "give us unlimited power."
In 1932, no other coalition was present in the German parliament that together would have gotten a larger share of the votes than the NSDAP. It's one of the great historical tragedies that the Social Democrats and the Communists were unable to cooperate.
There's a great distance between "first pickings to try to form a coalition" and "throw the main opposition in jail and fill the chamber with armed troops to ensure the rest vote absolute power for your party's leader."
Putin is similar, with electoral fraud substituting for naked force. Trump remains to be seen.
Erdogan, on the other hand, seems to legitimately enjoy the support of the majority. It may just be a quantitative difference, but it seems like an important one just the same.