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:
“Man is insatiable for power; he is infantile in his desires and, always discontented with what he has, loves only what he has not. People complain of the despotism of princes; they ought to complain of the despotism of man.”
—Joseph De Maistre (1753–1821)
“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)
“France was long a despotism tempered by epigrams.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)