despotism
des·po·tism
noun
1.
dominance through threat of punishment and violence
2.
a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.)
Origin
From French despotisme; equivalent to despot + -ism.
Related words
Narrower terms
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.