AUTOCRAT

AUTOCRAT, one who governs through his own agency. The term is synonymous with sovereign in Russia, and indicates that the chief of the state has a power unlimited and without control, that is, absolute. In the rest of Europe the word autocrat has always had a bad meaning, because opinion has always been liberal enough, even in countries other than constitutional, to be unfavorable to a régime that puts all public power in the hands of one man without imposing on him the least restriction or the slightest control. (See
ABSOLUTISM.)

M. B.