What's the difference between authoritarian and despotic?

Authoritarian


Definition:

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It’s likely Xi’s brand of smart authoritarianism will keep not just his party in power but the whole show on the road If all this were to succeed as intended, western liberal democratic capitalism would have a formidable ideological competitor with worldwide appeal, especially in the developing world.
  • (2) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the authoritarian, neo-Islamist president – and Davutoğlu’s political nemesis – has a less positive view of the EU.
  • (3) If he felt his actions were consistent with civil disobedience, then he should do what those who have taken issue with their own government do: challenge it, speak out, engage in a constructive act of protest, and – importantly – accept the consequences of his actions.” “He should come home to the United States, and be judged by a jury of his peers – not hide behind the cover of an authoritarian regime.
  • (4) Yet what has been unfolding in the past 15 months or so should make even the most ardent pro-European think about an orderly mechanism for making member states exit: the euro crisis and, less obviously, Hungary's backsliding from liberal democracy to a soft form of authoritarianism, or what an American paper recently called " Lukashenko lite ".
  • (5) This comes as good news to government critics who, concerned about Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian stance, accused him of wanting to "Putinise" the country in an effort to remain in charge beyond 2015, when he would be barred from serving as prime minister again.
  • (6) The so-called “709 crackdown” has alarmed activists and foreign observers who view the offensive as part of a broader bid to consolidate political control by an increasingly authoritarian leadership.
  • (7) But now, six months later, Xi appears to be more of a Putin than a Mikhail Gorbachev , behaving like a leader more interested in consolidating his power and ensuring the survival of an authoritarian system than in adopting significant political reforms.
  • (8) During his stints in the Bush and Obama administration Comey has continually taken authoritarian and factually dubious public stances both at odds with responsible public policy and sometimes the law.
  • (9) In short, it is alleged that under his rule Sri Lanka is becoming a nasty, authoritarian quasi-rogue banana republic.
  • (10) When the state monitored all its citizens as though they were suspects – whether in East Germany or North Korea – we called it authoritarianism.
  • (11) Rather than breaking with the moralising authoritarianism of the colonial state, its postcolonial successors in many parts of the world chose continuity.
  • (12) But another worry, says Dodge, is that the price of Iraq's freedom will turn out to be an authoritarian political system.
  • (13) All hearts were beating for you as long as you were perceived as just another version of the liberal democratic protest against the authoritarian state.
  • (14) A confirmatory factor analysis on these subscales showed that the Affective Valence, Empathic Caring, Self-Sacrifice, and Societies' Duties subscales each reflect a humanitarian concern for children and that the Instrumentality and Authoritarian Attitude subscales tap values involving a moralistic expectation of children.
  • (15) Some describe Lee Bo’s suspected abduction as a potentially fatal blow to the former colony’s supposed autonomy from authoritarian China.
  • (16) The Ethiopian government claims credit for the growth but is criticised as authoritarian by human rights groups; there is only one opposition MP.
  • (17) Some gifted and canny writers have made a mint by appealing to teenagers’ sense of anguish and victimhood, the notion that they are forever embattled and persecuted by a rotten world run by authoritarian bozos.
  • (18) Among Asian-American students, peer support for academic excellence offsets the negative consequences of authoritarian parenting.
  • (19) Since the incumbent, Ilham Aliyev, inherited power from his late father 10 years ago, Azerbaijan has become mired in rampant corruption , and the ruling regime has grown ever more authoritarian and ruthless .
  • (20) But to have the remnants of an authoritarian state reverting unchecked, however infrequently, to the use of disproportionate force is unacceptable.

Despotic


Definition:

  • (a.) Alt. of Despotical

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Right now, with Kabila already 10 years in power and looking immovable, despotism seems to have democracy on the ropes.
  • (2) All the while, a long list of corrupt and venal despots turned their rule into virtual kleptocracies and stole their children's futures.
  • (3) One is the stubborn mystery of how a giant of its liberation movements, an intellectual who showed forgiveness and magnanimity years before Mandela emerged from jail, could turn into the living caricature of despotism.
  • (4) If it fails to do so, it will rightly stand accused of placing a higher value on its alliance with murderous despots than the security of its own people.
  • (5) To crush any residual affinity for the monarchy, British propaganda against Thibaw “went into high gear”, said Thant Mtint-U, painting the monarch as an ogre, despot and drunkard.
  • (6) It took Harry Guy Bartholomew, first editorial director and then chairman after Rothermere unloaded his shares, to run the business on despotic lines and, with a mixture of flair and vindictive thuggery, create one of the great popular newspapers.
  • (7) The Red Army attacked despotic gentry and evil landlords, people who exploited our country and exploited individuals," she says, recalling her reasons for joining.
  • (8) The tabloid conclusion is that the North's leaders are crazed – Kim Jong-un is a "deranged despot", the Sun wrote on Friday – while the Team America version is that they are idiotic.
  • (9) Its words are an attack on tyrants and despots, and a call for liberty.
  • (10) Even though the event was celebrating victory over fascism, some of the world’s most notorious despots were in attendance, including Uzbekistan’s Islam Karimov, Turkmenistan’s Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.
  • (11) "We couldn't believe our eyes," grinned Shamad, recalling the sight of Tunisia's ousted despot, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, fleeing a land he had ruled for 23 years.
  • (12) When it comes, the fall of a famous despot sends a shiver that is felt across the world.
  • (13) Jacobs checked Moses's mad worship of the car and his despotic excesses.
  • (14) In 1989, according to the Washington Post , he was hired to massage the image of the despot Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) for $1m a year.
  • (15) Responding to suggestions by pro-coup pundits that he should be more statesman-like, he was adamant: “I won’t change my personality, because I am a person with multiple personalities.” As with other interesting despots, none of this affects his ability to wield absolute power.
  • (16) What of the jobs that we’re told would be endangered if we adopted the exotic policy of not selling arms to despots?
  • (17) As Assange noted drily: "It's nicer, particularly given the frequency of equatorial despotism, to be tortured in the computer room."
  • (18) In an age of infinite European promise - summed up by the annus mirabilis of 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell and the countries of eastern Europe and former Yugoslavia freed themselves from Soviet-style despotism - Slobodan Milosevic, who has died aged 64, was the wild card.
  • (19) In championing the oppressed, deterring aggression, curbing the excesses of despots, challenging the victimisation of scapegoats, tackling poverty or preventing genocide, the international community still has a long way to go.
  • (20) Pogrund and cameraman Dewald Aukema pick up not only the whirlwind nature of that first head-of-state visit, but the exotic and breathtaking beauty of Africa and Mandela's buttoned lip as he visits the lavish basilicas built by despots on the land of the poor.