monocracy

Monocracy is a form of government and political system based on the personal rule of an individual without a specific origin, legitimacy, or rules for exercising and transferring power. It can also take the form of a dictatorship exercised in the name of a republic or democracy, or in the name of the people. The term doesn't refer to traditional monarchy and has a broader meaning. Monocracy is typically contrasted with collegial body, where power and authority are vested equally in each of a number of colleagues, rather than in a single individual.

According to its etymology and literal meaning, the term monocracy includes all varieties of autocracy; in practice, however, a modified definition excluding non-monarchic and non-dynastic forms has been adopted in the political science literature. While monarchy is a system in which "the rule of one" is a universally accepted principle — justified by tradition and clarified by a number of rules defining the order and mode of assuming power, exercising it, and transferring it — the ruler of a monocracy can come to power in unpredictable, case-by-case ways, both legal and illegal. A monocratic ruler's power comes "out of nowhere"; the fact that they hold personal power may or may not be officially proclaimed and promulgated, and the question of succession remains open.