Both Uses of
despot
in
The Communist Manifesto
- The more openly this despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aim, the more petty, the more hateful and the more embittering it is.†
*despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power -- especially one who abuses that power
- Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production.†
despotic = typical of a ruler who abuses absolute power
Definition:
a ruler with absolute power -- especially one who abuses that power