autocracy

For the Athenians, demokratia, literally “people power,” meant endlessly striving to find ways of harnessing the tendency of leaders toward autocracy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 8, 2026

He admired the spirit of liberty, for instance, yet opposed the French Revolution and supported Napoleon, believing that ensuing populist disorder would then, as it turned out, require autocracy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026

An expert in the law of autocracy, Scheppele has seen firsthand what happened to constitutional courts, the media, the academy and the democratic norms that protected them in Russia and Hungary.

From Slate ● Jan. 3, 2026

The Pope spoke to a crowd of thousands in St Peter's Square to warn against marginalisation of the poor and autocracy.

From BBC ● May 18, 2025

Although his reign may have begun idealistically, Cahokia quickly became an autocracy; in an Ozymandiac extension of his ego, the supreme leader set in motion the construction projects.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

The Games were held in the middle of autocracies, the middle of pandemics and the middle of nowhere.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 15, 2026

Though in fairness, the app has stood firm against other censorship orders from autocracies like Myanmar and Russia, the latter of which temporarily banned the app in 2018.

From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2024

Orwell understood that the manipulation of language is an insidious tool of autocracies.

From Salon ● Mar. 19, 2024

Founded in 1967, the often-unwieldy collective of democracies, autocracies and monarchies has been held together for decades by bedrock principles of non-interference in each other’s domestic affairs and consensus-based decision-making.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 9, 2023

In its first aspect it was a quarrel between various autocracies over greed for influence and territory.

From The Story of the Great War, Volume VI (of VIII) History of the European War from Official Sources by Francis J. (Francis Joseph) Reynolds