Enlighteners hoped for a benevolent despot who would take their advice and enforce enlightened policies from above.
The Times Literary Supplement
Politicians are short-termist, and short of having a benevolent despot able to reign undisturbed and carry out longer-term objectives, short-termism seems destined to survive.
Times, Sunday Times
What it has to say about the conflict between imperialist, benevolent despot and democrat has been expressed logically and eloquently, with reasonable fidelity to historic fact...
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