despotismn.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. Despotism, or Despotic Government, a Form of Government wherein the Prince is absolute and arbitrary, doing whatever he lists.

1756 E. Burke Vindic. Nat. Society 40 The simplest Form of Government is Despotism, where all the inferior Orbs of Power are moved merely by the Will of the Supreme.

1813 J. Bentham Swear not at All 79 Next to the evils of anarchy, are the evils of despotism.

1857 J. Toulmin Smith Parish (new ed.) 364 The worst form of despotism is the silent enslaving of a nation by Functionarism and Bureaucracy.

a1862 H. T. Buckle Hist. Civilisation Eng. (1873) III. iv. 192 These very circumstances, which guarded the people against political despotism exposed them all the more to ecclesiastical despotism.

1869 G. Rawlinson Man. Anc. Hist. 22 Despotism is the simplest, coarsest, and rudest of all the forms of civil government.

1872 J. Morley Voltaire i. 28 In France the first effective enemy of the principles of despotism was Voltaire.

1856 B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. (ed. 3) I. v. 205 It is..dangerous suddenly to change a despotism for a free constitution.

1867 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest I. v. 325 A free country has greater difficulty than a despotism in the mere setting about of a war.

1879 J. A. Froude Cæsar xx. 347 They saw that a civil war could end only in a despotism.

1881 B. Jowett tr. Thucydides Hist. Peloponnesian War I. 190 Your empire is a despotism exercised over unwilling subjects.

1797 W. Godwin Enquirer i. vii. 60 All education is despotism.

1807 Salmagundi 2 June 217 With what..despotism do empty names and ideal phantoms exercise their dominion over the human mind!

1836 R. W. Emerson Nature vi. 62 The first effort of thought tends to relax this despotism of the senses.

1859 J. S. Mill On Liberty ii. 63 An old mental despotism had been thrown off.