Definitions of Autocracy
- (noun) A political system governed by an individual (called an autocrat) with absolute and unrestricted authority and power; despotism.
- (noun) The unrestricted authority and power of an autocrat.
- (noun) A country, nation, or State ruled by an autocrat.
Example of Autocracy
- American English – /aw-tAHk-ruh-see/
- British English – /aw-tOk-ruh-see/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ɔˈtɑkrəsi/
- British English – /ɔːˈtɒkrəsi/
- Plural: autocracies
- Autocracies are often described as (adjective) Machiavellian, based on the work Il Principe (Italian for “The Prince”), written by Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) in the 1500s. Machiavelli encouraged the notion that the “end justifies the means” for rulers.
- A type of authoritarianism, government, and political system.
- Autocracy is the opposite of democracy.
- Type: absolute monarchy
- Some definitions of autocracy extend autocratic authority and power to a single family or political party.
- Also called autarchy.
- An (noun) autocrat or (noun) autocratist (adverb) is autocratically (adjective) autocratic or (adjective) autocratical.
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- Word origin of “autocracy” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 5th ed. 2011. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Farlex. (N.d.) TheFreeDictionary.com: Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus. Farlex. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/).
Merriam-Webster. (N.d.) Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/).
Oxford Dictionaries. (N.d.) Oxford Dictionaries. New York: Oxford University Press. (https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/).
Princeton University. 2010. WordNet. (https://wordnet.princeton.edu/).
Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. (https://en.wikipedia.org/).
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2015. “autocracy.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved February 20, 2020 (https://sociologydictionary.org/autocracy/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
autocracy. (2015). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/autocracy/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2015. “autocracy.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed February 20, 2020. https://sociologydictionary.org/autocracy/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“autocracy.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2015. Web. 20 Feb. 2020. <https://sociologydictionary.org/autocracy/>.