Autocracy

[Fr. autocratie; Gr. autos, self, and kratos, power.] A form of government in which the sovereign exercises uncontrolled power, uniting in himself the legislative and executive powers of the State. Ru ia, and almost all the Eastern states, have this form of government. ( Philos .) A term used by Kant to denote the mastery of the reason over the rebellious propensities. (Med.) Independent force; action of the vital principle, or of the instinctive powers, towards the preservation of the individual.