dictatorship

Noun

dictatorship (plural dictatorships)

1. A type of government where absolute sovereignty is allotted to an individual or a small clique.
2. A government which exercises autocratic rule.
   • There were no elections during Franco's dictatorship.
   • His object, he declares, is not to set up a dictatorship but to achieve 'true democracy' by combating the idea of tolerance, on the ground that the vast majority cannot form right judgements when their minds are deformed by democratic sources of information.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume III: The Breakdown, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozkład (in...
3. Any household, institution, or other organization that is run under such sovereignty or autocracy.
4. (broadly) Total authority, control, or domination.
   • It has had a deplorable effect in furnishing pretexts for the stifling of all independent philosophical thought and in establishing the party's dictatorship over science and culture in every sphere.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in...