autocracy

[aw-tok-ruh-see]

noun

plural

autocracies 

1. government in which one person has uncontrolled or unlimited authority over others; the government or power of an absolute monarch.

2. a nation, state, or community ruled by an autocrat.

3. unlimited authority, power, or influence of one person in any group.

autocracy

/ ɔːˈtɒkrəsɪ /

noun

1. government by an individual with unrestricted authority

2. the unrestricted authority of such an individual

3. a country, society, etc, ruled by an autocrat

autocracy

1. A system of government in which supreme political power is held by one person. (Compare constitutional monarchy, democracy, and oligarchy.)

Iraq under Saddam Hussein is an autocracy.

Word History and Origins

Origin of autocracy¹

First recorded in 1645–55; from Greek autokráteia “power over oneself, sole power,” from autokrat(ḗs) autocrat + -eia -ia

Example Sentences

Pakistan's parliament has voted to give army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir new powers and lifetime immunity from arrest and prosecution, a move that critics say paves the way towards autocracy.

Read more on BBC

The window to autocracy remains open, but the election showed that we can see through it, and that clarity is the first step toward closing it.

Read more on Salon

More importantly, it is based on the obsolete assumption that America is a healthy democracy instead of one that is rapidly collapsing into a state of autocracy.

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It will demand careful attention to the cognitive toll of living under an absurd autocracy that claims to defend democracy while simultaneously dismantling it.

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He has shown that autocracies redistribute more land than democracies and that in Colombia land reform “reduced guerrilla activity” in those areas that “threatened serious violence.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• despotism 
• dictatorship 
• oppression 
• tyranny