an organization or state which enforces strong or oppressive measures against its population
disapproval If you describe a person or an organization as authoritarian, you are critical of them controlling everything rather than letting people decide things for themselves. Senior officers could be considering a coup to restore authoritarian rule. = dictatorial An authoritarian is someone who is authoritarian. Don became the overly strict authoritarian he felt his brother needed. strictly forcing people to obey a set of rules or laws, especially ones that are wrong or unfair
characteristic of an absolute ruler or absolute rule; having absolute sovereignty; "an authoritarian regime"; "autocratic government"; "despotic rulers"; "a dictatorial rule that lasted for the duration of the war"; "a tyrannical government"
expecting unquestioning obedience; "he was imperious and dictatorial"; "the timid child of authoritarian parents"; "insufferably overbearing behavior toward the waiter"