authoritarian rule
Iron-fisted control
Authoritarian rule is governance by a single leader or small group exercising power without meaningful democratic accountability.
The regime typically suppresses political opposition, restricts civil liberties, and controls media.
Unlike totalitarianism, authoritarian rule may tolerate limited social freedoms while maintaining strict political control: The country slid toward authoritarian rule after the military coup.
- economic coercionMonetary pressure for compliance
- dictatorshipUnchecked single-ruler government
- censorshipOfficial content restriction
- despotismAbsolute one-person rule
- fearEmotional response to threat
autocracy · one-party state · fascism · propaganda · indoctrination · totalitarianism · human rights abuses · secret police · state surveillance · thought control · oligarchy · media manipulation · curfews · social conformity · political repression · Stalinism · junta · imperialism
- Dystopia1984, Nineteen Eighty-Four, dystopian fiction, totalitarianism, Brave New World
- Indochina PoliticsCommunist Party, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam War, Politburo, one-party state
- military rulemilitary junta, military regime, military rule, military council, junta
- political turmoilpolitical instability, power vacuum, coup d'etat, military coup, uprising
- Totalitarianismtotalitarianism, one-party state, one-party rule, dictatorship, single-party state
- Korea 1960s-80sdemocratization, military coup, military rule, chaebols, economic miracle
authoritarian ruledemocracy
Rule by the people
democratic governance · liberal democracy · self-governance · representative government · popular sovereignty
authoritarian rulefreedom
Absence of constraint
liberty · civil liberties · free society · open society · consent of the governed
authoritarian ruleanarchy
Disorder from absent authority
libertarianism · anarchism · laissez-faire · limited government · free society