Despotism
Despotism is a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. That entity may be an individual, as in an autocracy, or it may be a group, as in an oligarchy. The word despotism means to "rule in the fashion of a despot" and does not necessarily require a singular "despot", an individual.
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Famous quotes containing the word despotism:
“Strange is this alien despotism of Sleep which takes two persons lying in each other’s arms & separates them leagues, continents, asunder.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The revolutionary government is the despotism of liberty against tyranny.”
—Georg Büchner (1813–1837)
“Under a Presidential government, a nation has, except at the electing moment, no influence; it has not the ballot-box before it; its virtue is gone, and it must wait till its instant of despotism again returns.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)