Among a certain strain of integralist it is popular to criticize Americans—and Anglo-Protestants more broadly—for giving in to “tyrannophobia”, an irrational fear and loathing of tyrants and tyrannical forms of government. As with many such claims, it has a kernel of truth: it’s easy to see how, as governance power has concentrated in America, the ability to mobilize increasingly apathetic or alienated voters against the political control of one’s enemies has increasingly hinged on one’s ability to portray them as crazy, out-of-control tyrants, malevolent monsters whose slightest whim might destroy all we cherish in our country and our lives.
In classic Anglo-American republican terms, a tyrannical government is an arbitrary government; a government that is not constrained by either constitutional limits or the consent of the governed. This definition originated in the 1620s and was used to counter the Stuart assertions of unlimited royal prerogative.
In classic Anglo-American republican terms, a tyrannical government is an arbitrary government; a government that is not constrained by either constitutional limits or the consent of the governed. This definition originated in the 1620s and was used to counter the Stuart assertions of unlimited royal prerogative.