despotism

From French despotisme; equivalent to despot +‎ -ism.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɛspətɪzəm/

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despotism (countable and uncountable, plural despotisms)

1. Government by a despot or despots: rule by a singular authority, either a single person or a tight-knit group, which rules with absolute power, especially in a cruel and oppressive way.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 136:

     The iron hand of despotism has quenched the last spark of liberty; hunted down like a wild beast, I am watching an opportunity to fly my degraded and enslaved country.

   • 1992 March 30, Richard Nixon, 4:50 from the start, in Richard Nixon on "Inside Washington"‎, Richard Nixon Foundation, retrieved 25 May 2020:

     But now events have proved that I was right because Khrushchev's grandchildren do live in freedom and the great question of our time: can they continue to live in freedom, or will they revert to the old, or a new despotism?

• despot
• despotate
• despotic

• misposted

Borrowed from French despotisme. By surface analysis, despot +‎ -ism.

despotism n (uncountable)

1. despotism