Autocracy vs Democracy - What's the difference?
autocracy | democracy |
A form of government in which unlimited power is held by a single individual.
(uncountable) Rule by the people, especially as a form of government; either directly or through elected representatives (representative democracy).
* 1866 , J. Arthur Partridge, On Democracy , Trübner & Co., page 2:
* 1901 , The American Historical Review , American Historical Association, page 260:
* 1921 , James Bryce Bryce, Modern Democracies , The Macmillan Company, page 1:
* 1994 , Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom , Abacus 2010, p. 24:
(countable, government) A government under the direct or representative rule of the people of its jurisdiction.
* 2003 , Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad , W. W. Norton & Company, page 13:
(uncountable) Belief in political freedom and equality; the "spirit of democracy".
* 1918 , Charles Horton Cooley, “A Primary Culture for Democracy”, in Publications of the American Sociological Society 13 ,
* 1919 , Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, The Spirit of Russia: Studies in History, Literature and Philosophy , Macmillan,
* 1996 , Petre Roman, The Spirit of Democracy and the Fabric of NATO - The New European Democracies and NATO Enlargement ,
As nouns the difference between autocracy and democracy
is that autocracy is a form of government in which unlimited power is held by a single individual while democracy is rule by the people, especially as a form of government; either directly or through elected representatives (representative democracy).autocracy
English
(wikipedia autocracy)Noun
(autocracies)Synonyms
* bigmanism * despotism * dictatorship * monarchy * tyrannyHypernyms
* totalitarianismdemocracy
English
(wikipedia democracy)Noun
(democracies)- And the essential value and power of Democracy' consists in this,—that it combines, as far as possible, power and organization ; THE SPIRIT, MANHOOD, ''is at one with'' THE BODY, ORGANIZATION. [....] ' Democracy is Government by the People.
- The period, that is, which marks the transition from absolutism or aristocracy to democracy will mark also the transition from absolutist or autocratic methods of nomination to democratic methods.
- A century ago there was in the Old World only one tiny spot in which the working of democracy could be studied. A few of the ancient rural cantons of Switzerland had recovered their freedom after the fall of Napoleon, and were governing themselves as they had done from the earlier Middle Ages[...]. Nowhere else in Europe did the people rule.
- Everyone who wanted to speak did so. It was democracy in its purest form.
- In 1900 not a single country had what we would today consider a democracy : a government created by elections in which every adult citizen could vote.
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- As states of the human spirit democracy , righteousness, and faith have much in common and may be cultivated by the same means...
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- It must further be admitted that he provided a successful interpretation of democracy' in its philosophic aspects when he conceived '''democracy''' as a general outlook on the universe... In Bakunin's conception of ' democracy as religious in character we trace the influence of French socialism.
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- The spirit of democracy' means, above all, liberty of choice for human beings... ' democracy , in both its individual and collective forms, is the main engine of the eternal human striving for justice and prosperity.