Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Autocracy \Au*toc"ra*cy\, n.; pl. {Autocracies}. [Gr. ?: cf. F.
autocratie. See {Autocrat}.]
1. Independent or self-derived power; absolute or controlling
authority; supremacy.
The divine will moves, not by the external impulse
or inclination of objects, but determines itself by
an absolute autocracy. --South.
2. Supreme, uncontrolled, unlimited authority, or right of
governing in a single person, as of an autocrat.
3. Political independence or absolute sovereignty (of a
state); autonomy. --Barlow.
4. (Med.) The action of the vital principle, or of the
instinctive powers, toward the preservation of the
individual; also, the vital principle. [In this sense,
written also {autocrasy}.] --Dunglison.
Source : WordNet®
autocracy
n 1: a political system governed by a single individual [syn: {autarchy}]
[ant: {democracy}]
2: a political theory favoring unlimited authority by a single
individual