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In political science, despotism (Greek: Δεσποτισμός, romanized: despotismós) is a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. Normally, that entity is an individual, the despot (as in an autocracy ), but societies which limit respect and power to specific groups have also been called despotic.
Autocracy was among the earliest forms of government. It began as despotism, which existed throughout the ancient world in the form of chiefdoms, city-states, and empires. Monarchy was the predominant form of autocracy for most of history.
The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement, being in unceasing antagonism to that disposition to aim at something better than customary, which is called, according to circumstances, the spirit of liberty, or that of progress or improvement. The spirit of improvement is not always a spirit of liberty, for ...
Sent back to the Nord, then to Moselle, according to his colleague Nicolas Hentz, Duquesnoy forgot his dignity as a representative and behaved with an insupportable despotism. Recalled to Paris on 10 August 1794, he succeeded in excluding Jean-Lambert Tallien from the club des Jacobins and having Armand-Joseph Guffroy beaten before Carnot.
Château de la Brède, Montesquieu's birthplace. Montesquieu was born at the Château de la Brède in southwest France, 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of Bordeaux. [4] His father, Jacques de Secondat (1654–1713), was a soldier with a long noble ancestry, including descent from Richard de la Pole, Yorkist claimant to the English crown.
John Stuart Mill stated that despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians, provided the end be their improvement. [ 2 ] Enlightened absolutists' beliefs about royal power were typically similar to those of regular despots, both recognizing that they were destined to rule.
[20] (However, Mill immediately added that "A violation of the great principles of morality it may easily be.") [21] Mill viewed places such as India as having once been progressive in their outlook, but had now become stagnant in their development; he opined that this meant these regions had to be ruled via a form of "benevolent despotism ...
Despotism, a form of government in which power is concentrated in the hands of one individual; Despot (rapper), rapper Alec Reinstein's stage name; Šifra Despot , a TV series; Despot (vehicle), armoured multifunctional vehicle