All 50 Uses of
despot
in
Democracy In America, Volume 1
- The population of New England increased rapidly; and whilst the hierarchy of rank despotically classed the inhabitants of the mother-country, the colony continued to present the novel spectacle of a community homogeneous in all its parts.†
Chpt 2despotically = in a manner typical of a ruler who abuses absolute power
- "The will of the nation" is one of those expressions which have been most profusely abused by the wily and the despotic of every age.†
Chpt 4 *despotic = typical of a ruler who abuses absolute power
- The transient passions and the interests of an hour, or the chance of circumstances, may have created the external forms of independence; but the despotic tendency which has been repelled will, sooner or later, inevitably reappear on the surface.†
Chpt 5
- The justice introduces into the administration a certain taste for established forms and publicity, which renders him a most unserviceable instrument of despotism; and, on the other hand, he is not blinded by those superstitions which render legal officers unfit members of a government.†
Chpt 5despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power -- especially one who abuses that power
- In the present age they are in rapid decay, because their religion is departing, and despotism only remains.†
Chpt 5
- Montesquieu, who attributed to absolute power an authority peculiar to itself, did it, as I conceive, an undeserved honor; for despotism, taken by itself, can produce no durable results.†
Chpt 5
- In like manner an aristocracy protects the people from the excesses of despotism, because it always possesses an organized power ready to resist a despot.†
Chpt 5
- In like manner an aristocracy protects the people from the excesses of despotism, because it always possesses an organized power ready to resist a despot.†
Chpt 5
- In the French Revolution there were two impulses in opposite directions, which must never be confounded—the one was favorable to liberty, the other to despotism.†
Chpt 5despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power -- especially one who abuses that power
- The Revolution declared itself the enemy of royalty and of provincial institutions at the same time; it confounded all that had preceded it—despotic power and the checks to its abuses—in indiscriminate hatred, and its tendency was at once to overthrow and to centralize.†
Chpt 5despotic = typical of a ruler who abuses absolute power
- Can they be accused of laboring in the cause of despotism when they are defending that central administration which was one of the great innovations of the Revolution?†
Chpt 5despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power -- especially one who abuses that power
- It frequently happened before the Revolution that a Parliament issued a warrant against a public officer who had committed an offence, and sometimes the proceedings were stopped by the authority of the Crown, which enforced compliance with its absolute and despotic will.†
Chpt 6despotic = typical of a ruler who abuses absolute power
- A government which should have no other means of exacting obedience than open war must be very near its ruin, for one of two alternatives would then probably occur: if its authority was small and its character temperate, it would not resort to violence till the last extremity, and it would connive at a number of partial acts of insubordination, in which case the State would gradually fall into anarchy; if it was enterprising and powerful, it would perpetually have recourse to its physical strength, and would speedily degenerate into a military despotism.†
Chpt 8despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power -- especially one who abuses that power
- This concentration is at once prejudicial to a well-conducted administration, and favorable to the despotism of the majority.†
Chpt 8
- They were involved in ceaseless embarrassments between the mechanism of their double government; the sovereignty of the States and that of the Union perpetually exceeded their respective privileges, and entered into collision; and to the present day Mexico is alternately the victim of anarchy and the slave of military despotism.†
Chpt 8
- A long war almost always places nations in the wretched alternative of being abandoned to ruin by defeat or to despotism by success.†
Chpt 8
- The liberty of discourse must therefore be destroyed as well as the liberty of the press; this is the necessary term of your efforts; but if your object was to repress the abuses of liberty, they have brought you to the feet of a despot.†
Chpt 11
- The first newspaper over which I cast my eyes, upon my arrival in America, contained the following article: In all this affair the language of Jackson has been that of a heartless despot, solely occupied with the preservation of his own authority.†
Chpt 11
- It has been demonstrated by observation, and discovered by the innate sagacity of the pettiest as well as the greatest of despots, that the influence of a power is increased in proportion as its direction is rendered more central.†
Chpt 11despots = rulers with absolute power -- especially those who abuses that power
- And here I am about to advance a proposition which may remind the reader of what I said before in speaking of municipal freedom: There are no countries in which associations are more needed, to prevent the despotism of faction or the arbitrary power of a prince, than those which are democratically constituted.†
Chpt 12despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power -- especially one who abuses that power
- And to no people can this inquiry be more vitally interesting than to the French nation, which is blindly driven onwards by a daily and irresistible impulse towards a state of things which may prove either despotic or republican, but which will assuredly be democratic.†
Chpt 13despotic = typical of a ruler who abuses absolute power
- When a democratic republic renders offices which had formerly been remunerated gratuitous, it may safely be believed that the State is advancing to monarchical institutions; and when a monarchy begins to remunerate such officers as had hitherto been unpaid, it is a sure sign that it is approaching toward a despotic or a republican form of government.†
Chpt 13
- In despotic States the fortune of no citizen is secure; and public officers are not more safe than private individuals.†
Chpt 13
- In despotic States the sovereign is so attached to the exercise of his power, that he dislikes the constraint even of his own regulations; and he is well pleased that his agents should follow a somewhat fortuitous line of conduct, provided he be certain that their actions will never counteract his desires.†
Chpt 13
- It may even be observed, on attentive consideration, that under the rule of a democracy the arbitrary power of the magistrate must be still greater than in despotic States.†
Chpt 13
- The magistrate ceases to be elective, but he retains the rights and the habits of an elected officer, which lead directly to despotism.†
Chpt 13despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power -- especially one who abuses that power
- It is certain that despotism ruins individuals by preventing them from producing wealth, much more than by depriving them of the wealth they have produced; it dries up the source of riches, whilst it usually respects acquired property.†
Chpt 13
- If a democratic country remained during a whole century subject to a republican government, it would probably at the end of that period be more populous and more prosperous than the neighboring despotic States.†
Chpt 13despotic = typical of a ruler who abuses absolute power
- When I consider their condition, which alternates between misery and crime, I should be inclined to believe that despotism itself would be a benefit to them, if it were possible that the words despotism and benefit could ever be united in my mind.†
Chpt 13despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power -- especially one who abuses that power
- When I consider their condition, which alternates between misery and crime, I should be inclined to believe that despotism itself would be a benefit to them, if it were possible that the words despotism and benefit could ever be united in my mind.†
Chpt 13
- Such is not the case with despotic institutions: despotism often promises to make amends for a thousand previous ills; it supports the right, it protects the oppressed, and it maintains public order.†
Chpt 14despotic = typical of a ruler who abuses absolute power
- Such is not the case with despotic institutions: despotism often promises to make amends for a thousand previous ills; it supports the right, it protects the oppressed, and it maintains public order.†
Chpt 14despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power -- especially one who abuses that power
- *d I am persuaded that, if ever a despotic government is established in America, it will find it more difficult to surmount the habits which free institutions have engendered than to conquer the attachment of the citizens to freedom.†
Chpt 14despotic = typical of a ruler who abuses absolute power
- Democratic liberty is far from accomplishing all the projects it undertakes, with the skill of an adroit despotism.†
Chpt 14despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power -- especially one who abuses that power
- *d [Footnote d: A striking instance of the excesses which may be occasioned by the despotism of the majority occurred at Baltimore in the year 1812.†
Chpt 15
- In the United States the unbounded power of the majority, which is favorable to the legal despotism of the legislature, is likewise favorable to the arbitrary authority of the magistrate.†
Chpt 15
- Power Exercised By The Majority In America Upon Opinion In America, when the majority has once irrevocably decided a question, all discussion ceases—Reason of this—Moral power exercised by the majority upon opinion—Democratic republics have deprived despotism of its physical instruments—Their despotism sways the minds of men.†
Chpt 15
- Power Exercised By The Majority In America Upon Opinion In America, when the majority has once irrevocably decided a question, all discussion ceases—Reason of this—Moral power exercised by the majority upon opinion—Democratic republics have deprived despotism of its physical instruments—Their despotism sways the minds of men.†
Chpt 15
- Fetters and headsmen were the coarse instruments which tyranny formerly employed; but the civilization of our age has refined the arts of despotism which seemed, however, to have been sufficiently perfected before.†
Chpt 15
- Under the absolute sway of an individual despot the body was attacked in order to subdue the soul, and the soul escaped the blows which were directed against it and rose superior to the attempt; but such is not the course adopted by tyranny in democratic republics; there the body is left free, and the soul is enslaved.†
Chpt 15
- Monarchical institutions have thrown an odium upon despotism; let us beware lest democratic republics should restore oppression, and should render it less odious and less degrading in the eyes of the many, by making it still more onerous to the few.†
Chpt 15despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power -- especially one who abuses that power
- I am inclined to attribute the singular paucity of distinguished political characters to the ever-increasing activity of the despotism of the majority in the United States.†
Chpt 15
- This may be explained by analogy; despotism debases the oppressed much more than the oppressor: in absolute monarchies the king has often great virtues, but the courtiers are invariably servile.†
Chpt 15
- Anarchy will then be the result, but it will have been brought about by despotism.†
Chpt 15
- But in the United States the majority, which so frequently displays the tastes and the propensities of a despot, is still destitute of the more perfect instruments of tyranny.†
Chpt 16
- The majority is become more and more absolute, but it has not increased the prerogatives of the central government; those great prerogatives have been confined to a certain sphere; and although the despotism of the majority may be galling upon one point, it cannot be said to extend to all.†
Chpt 16despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power -- especially one who abuses that power
- This point deserves attention, for if a democratic republic similar to that of the United States were ever founded in a country where the power of a single individual had previously subsisted, and the effects of a centralized administration had sunk deep into the habits and the laws of the people, I do not hesitate to assert, that in that country a more insufferable despotism would prevail than any which now exists in the monarchical States of Europe, or indeed than any which could be found on this side of the confines of Asia.†
Chpt 16
- The Profession Of The Law In The United States Serves To Counterpoise The Democracy Utility of discriminating the natural propensities of the members of the legal profession—These men called upon to act a prominent part in future society—In what manner the peculiar pursuits of lawyers give an aristocratic turn to their ideas—Accidental causes which may check this tendency—Ease with which the aristocracy coalesces with legal men—Use of lawyers to a despot—The profession of the law constitutes the only aristocratic element with which the natural elements of democracy will combine—Peculiar causes which tend to give an aristocratic turn of mind to the English and American lawyers—The aristocracy†
Chpt 16
- He would act more wisely in introducing men connected with the law into the government; and if he entrusted them with the conduct of a despotic power, bearing some marks of violence, that power would most likely assume the external features of justice and of legality in their hands.†
Chpt 16despotic = typical of a ruler who abuses absolute power
- The second consists in those municipal institutions which limit the despotism of the majority, and at the same time impart a taste for freedom and a knowledge of the art of being free to the people.†
Chpt 17despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power -- especially one who abuses that power
Definition:
a ruler with absolute power -- especially one who abuses that power