authoritarianism

From authoritarian +‎ -ism.

authoritarianism (countable and uncountable, plural authoritarianisms)

1. A form of government in which the governing body has absolute, or almost absolute, control. Typically this control is maintained by force, and little heed is paid to public opinion or the judicial system.

   Near-synonyms: dictatorialism; autocratism; totalitarianism (see usage note there)

   • 2017 May 25, Mark Zuckerberg, “Mark Zuckerberg’s Commencement address at Harvard”, in The Harvard Gazette‎^[1]:

     This is the struggle of our time. The forces of freedom, openness and global community against the forces of authoritarianism, isolationism and nationalism.

   • 2021, Stanley Feldman, Vittorio Mérola, and Justin Dollman, “THE PSYCHOLOGY OF AUTHORITARIANISM AND SUPPORT FOR ILLIBERAL POLICIES AND PARTIES”, in Vittorio Merola‎^[2], page 635:

     Working from a psycho-dynamic perspective, Fromm explained authoritarianism as a response to the breakdown of traditional social structures brought about by industrialization and modernization.

   • 2025 February 25, Linda Feldmann, “How Trump skirts checks and balances unlike any modern-day US president”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

     Instead of three co-equal branches acting as a check on each other, power has become increasingly concentrated over the years in the White House – a trend that is now being supercharged under Mr. Trump in ways that, to critics, raise the specter of authoritarianism.

   • 2025 April 10, Adam Serwer, “The Confrontation Between Trump and the Supreme Court Has Arrived”, in The Atlantic‎^[3], archived from the original on 11 April 2025:

     If Trump defies the Court here, then America will have taken an important step toward authoritarianism and anti-constitutional government.

• “authoritarianism”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “authoritarianism”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.