Tyranny

(From L. tyrannum). Government exercised by a tyrant, whether an individual or a reduced group, who obtain absolute power through violence and against established law. Tyrants exercise power without justice and in accordance with their will. The basis of t. is naked force, terror and cynicism, meant to provoke fear and blind obedience. It often arises during periods of transition from a traditional system to a new and different system, when the old political and social elites have been discredited and the new elites are in the process of formation. It is a regime that is cruel yet fragile, and provokes violent political disorder. T. has many features in common with despotism in that it employs a number of mechanisms inherited from the latter, but differs in its lack of legitimacy, its lack of a more or less stable social base, and in its breaking with tradition and traditional society.