Definition: autocracy

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Source: WordNet (r) 1.7 

autocracy
     n 1: a political system governed by a single individual [syn: autarchy]
          [ant: democracy]
     2: a political theory favoring unlimited authority by a single
        individual

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) 

Autocracy \Au*toc"ra*cy\, n.; pl. Autocracies. [Gr. ?: cf. F.
   autocratie. See Autocrat.]
   1. Independent or self-derived power; absolute or controlling
      authority; supremacy.

            The divine will moves, not by the external impulse
            or inclination of objects, but determines itself by
            an absolute autocracy.                --South.

   2. Supreme, uncontrolled, unlimited authority, or right of
      governing in a single person, as of an autocrat.

   3. Political independence or absolute sovereignty (of a
      state); autonomy. --Barlow.

   4. (Med.) The action of the vital principle, or of the
      instinctive powers, toward the preservation of the
      individual; also, the vital principle. [In this sense,
      written also autocrasy.] --Dunglison.