Word Finder - autocratic

definition

Of or pertaining to autocracy or to an autocrat; absolute; holding independent and arbitrary powers of government.

example

In recent years, the prime minister has become increasingly autocratic.

definition

Of or pertaining to the manner of an autocrat.

example

Despite his lack of actual authority, his autocratic demeanour annoyed many of his colleagues.

At the age of twenty he found himself possessed of effective autocratic power.

Chasles suggests 3 - as " a limited monarchy under an autocratic emperor."

All this, however, did not argue an intention on the part of the government to revert to the autocratic status quo.

Even in autocratic regimes, truth has a way of seeping in—which means today's dwindling crop of dictators has a serious problem.

The fundamental law was altered in 1848 and the Dutch monarchy, from being autocratic, became henceforth constitutional.

The colonies are divisible into two classes, (I) those possessing considerable powers of local self-government, (2) those in which the local government is autocratic. To this second class may be added the protectorates (and some colonies) where the native form of government is maintained under the supervision of French officials.

Notwithstanding this, in 1849 he accepted the office of minister of religion and education, which he held in 1860 under the autocratic and centralizing administration of Schwarzenberg and Bach.

Although the idol of his victorious army, and in a position enabling him to exercise autocratic power, he laboured unostentatiously for more than a year and a half as a member of the parliament, whose authority he supported to the best of his ability.

The Medici became yearly more indispensable to Florence, the Bentivogli more autocratic in Bologna, the Baglioni in Perugia; and even Siena was ruled by the Petrucci.

The defeat of General Pepe by the Austrians at Rieti (March 7, 1821) and the re-establishment of King Ferdinands autocratic power under the protection of Austrian bayonets were the effective assertion of this principle.

The forms of government of colonies present a series of transitional types from the autocratic administration of a governor appointed by the home government to complete democratic selfgovernment.

Before this date the fundamental laws of Russia described the power of the emperor as " autocratic and unlimited."

The tsars of Muscovy meant to be autocratic rulers alike in their old and in their new territories.

In these circumstances the only outlet for discontent was sedition, and the malcontents awaited impatiently a favourable opportunity for an attempt to curb or overthrow the autocratic power.

While thus uniting under their vigorous autocratic rule the small rival principalities, the Moscow princes had to keep a watchful eye on their eastern neighbours.

The incident afforded a new proof, where no proof was required, that the autocratic power in Russia was supreme.

Subsequently very important reforms were introduced, not by the vote of an assembly, but by the fiat of the autocratic power.

They were accordingly replaced in great measure by the old autocratic methods of administration, and much of the administrative corruption which had been cured, or at least repressed, by the reform enthusiasm again flourished luxuriantly.

Further discords naturally arose between so masterful a lieutenant as Bonaparte and so autocratic a chief as Paoli.

The aim of Sieyes was to perpetuate the republic, but in a bureaucratic or autocratic form.

This constitution has worked well on the whole, the only serious hitches having been due to the tendency of governors-general and kaimakams to attempt to supersede the mejliss by autocratic action, and to impair the freedom of elections.

The system of government is autocratic, "unquestioning obedience" being required throughout all ranks.

The peninsula was, roughly speaking, divided into principalities and sovereign cities, each of which claimed autocratic j urisdiction.

The memory of these humiliations played their part in developing later the autocratic ideas of Louis.

Johnson, a man autocratic by nature, and leaning to his old Presbyterian ideals on the point, held that the church had no power to control its elders, once elected, in their exercise of discipline, much less to depose them; while Ainsworth, true to Barrow and the " old way " as he claimed, sided with those who made the church itself supreme throughout.

Trained in a school where the principles of responsible government were still in an embryonic state, where the adroit management of coalitions and cabals was essential to the life of a political party, and where plots and counterplots were looked upon as a regular part of the political game, he acquired a dexterity and skill in managing men that finally gave him an almost autocratic power among his political followers.

The emir of Bokhara is an autocratic ruler, his power being limited only by the traditional custom (sheriat) of the Mussulmans.

The chairman in particular is generally reappointed, and is often, in a populous area, a person of great and perhaps autocratic power, who has large funds at his disposal and a regular army of workers under his orders.

Wellington's intimate association for several years with the sovereigns and statesmen of the Grand Alliance, and his experience of the evils which the Alliance existed to hold in check, naturally led him to dislike Canning's aggressive attitude towards the autocratic powers, and to view with some apprehension his determination to break with the European concert.

Ernest, a prince with very autocratic ideas, had disapproved of the constitution of 1833, and his first important act as king was to declare it invalid.

During this reign the foreign policy of Hanover both within and without Germany had been coloured by jealousy of Prussia and by the king's autocratic ideas.

The remainder of Kalakaua's reign teemed with intrigues and conspiracies to restore autocratic rule.

The history of her reign shows that it was her constant purpose to restore autocratic government.

This division contains the palace of the ruler of Tiryns, a building which shows careful and skilful construction, elaborate decoration, and a well-arranged plan, suitable to the wants1 of a wealthy autocratic chief, who lived in a manner which partly recalls the luxury of an Oriental king, and also resembled the feudal state of a medieval baron, surrounded by a crowd of vassals.

So long as the alliance of the autocratic empire and the clergy lasted (1852-1860), intellectual reaction reigned; the university professorships of history and philosophy were suppressed.

The autocratic powers of the Grand Alliance, though forced to support him as the representative of legitimacy in Spain, watched his proceedings with disgust and alarm.

He had to contend, like his predecessors, with the perennial hostility of the burgher aristocracy of Amsterdam, and at times with other refractory town councils, but his power in the States during his life was almost autocratic. His task was rendered lighter by the influence and ability of Heinsius, the grand pensionary of Holland, a wise and prudent statesman, whose tact and modera tion in dealing with the details and difficulties of internal administration were conspicuous.

In 1805 the autocratic will of Napoleon Bonaparte imposed upon them a new constitution, and Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck (1765-1825) was made, under the ancient title of grand pensionary, head of the government.

He was autocratic, but just and very patriotic. During his reign the duchy, which had been more than half French, became predominantly Italian.

He shared to the full the autocratic temper of the Habsburgs, their narrow-mindedness and their religious and intellectual obscurantism; and the qualities which would have made him a kindly, if somewhat tyrannical, father of a family, and an excellent head clerk, were hardly those required by the conditions of the Austrian monarchy during a singularly critical period of its history.

For some ten years the Austrian dominion groaned under one of the worst possible forms of autocratic government.

The " Holy Alliance " of the three autocratic northern powers, recemented at Miinchengratz in 1833, which had gained for Austria the decisive intervention of the tsar in 1849, had been hopelessly shattered by her attitude during the Crimean War.

In the former he was from the first the leader of a powerful party, and gradually became the autocratic ruler of Arabia; in the latter he was only the despised preacher of a small congregation.

He was impulsive, obstinate, severe, autocratic; but his mind was open to large ideas, and he threw himself into his undertakings with an energy and determination that often compelled success.

In their eyes the king was not merely autocratic, but sacrosanct.

It flattered his vanity to pose before the world as the dispenser of benefits; but his theoretical liberalism was mated with an autocratic will which brooked no contradiction.

Before leaving Troppau, however, the three autocratic powers, Russia, Austria and Prussia, had issued, on the 8th of December 1820, a circular letter, in which they reiterated the principles of the Protocol, i.e.

The result was, however, that the powers authorized Austria to march an army into Naples to restore the autocratic monarchy.

The French Revolution had supposed itself to be fighting for the " rights of man "; really it was trying to replace an autocratic kingship by an equally autocratic " general will " of the multitude.

Yet, in spite of all this, his activity could not but prove the narrow limits of autocratic power.