An ideology, system, or excessive practice of using the guillotine as a method of execution or rule through fear and violence.
From guillotine + -ism suffix (forming ideologies, systems, or practices). This term emerged to describe the systematic use of execution during the French Terror as an ideology of fear-based governance.
The term 'guillotinism' captures how the guillotine became more than just a tool—it became a symbol of the Terror and a political system based on eliminating enemies through mechanical execution, which critics used to describe totalitarian rule.
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