A system of government with absolute power held by a single ruler similar to ancient Caesar; authoritarian rule modeled on Roman imperial dictatorship.
From Caesar + -ism (suffix meaning 'system' or 'practice'). Coined in 19th-century political discourse to describe authoritarian governmental structures mimicking Roman imperial rule.
Political scientists debated 'Caesarism' heavily in the 1800s when diagnosing what went wrong in Europe—it became the term for the dangerous pattern where strong military leaders seize total power, which happened repeatedly from Napoleon onwards.
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