Tyranny Research Paper

Words: 777
Pages: 4

Tyranny is defined by Merriam-Webster as “oppressive power; especially: oppressive power exerted by government.” Throughout history, this term has taken forms of authoritarianism and has been relatively commonplace in the course of human events, making it a prevalent and recurring theme in the recorded history of mankind. From the time of Caligula, the mad emperor of Rome, to the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and despite being separated by centuries and civilizations, each follows a similar pattern of cause and effect that transcends generations.
Autocracies, oligarchies, and other oppressive types of government often form when a nation is in times of extreme crisis, such as war, famine, or when a government becomes inefficient or abusive. When this occurs, there is usually a revolution in which freedom is traded for order, such as in the events following the Russian Revolution, in which the
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It is also seen that each on implemented an arbitrary exercise of power to develop a sociopolitical elite class for ruling, the abolition of the juridical bonds of power to prevent a leader's usurpation on the grounds of law, substantial restrictions of civil liberties while emphasizing citizen's obligation to serve the state, aggressive and impulsive decision making aimed at transforming society, and despotic methods of political and social control to impose the duty of obedience to methods of terror. Each example meets all of the qualifications necessary to be classified as a dictatorship, an autocratic form of government best described as “the unrestricted domination of the state by an individual, a clique, or a small group.” On a broader scale, these examples depict a universal similarity between all totalitarian governments, the pattern of their origin, ascension, maintenance of power, and their inevitable