Type 1: "Classic Imperialist"

Over the next few days, The Monarchist examines the worst and best forms of government, by revealing each of the prevailing mindset types (seven in all) that characterises the resulting Liberty vs Power governing arrangement. We begin today with the most repressive and end in the days to come with the most free.

Mindset: "I am chosen by birth right and divine destiny to rule over the soiled masses and have them do my bidding, till my fields, fight my wars of expansion and service the needs of the nobility class I create to uphold my arbitrary, absolute authority. My whim and will is not to be questioned as it is the extension of Divine Providence. The greed, avarice, corruption and profligacy of my ilk is above the law."

Model of Government: Absolute Despotism (One Man Rule), which could be a perverted form of absolutist empire/monarchy/republic. Note: I do not apply the term "despot" to those who acquire such position by regular constitutional means, such as a hereditary absolute monarch, except to denote personal abuse of power.

Intellectual Theories of One Man Rule: The Devine Right of Kings, Mandate of Heaven, The Natural Power of Kings (Robert Filmer), Leviathon (Thomas Hobbes), The Philosopher King in Plato's Republic (Socrates). Intellectually, Montesquieu pointed out that there were three main forms of one-man government, each supported by a social "principle": monarchies (free governments headed by a hereditary figure), which rely on the principle of honour; republics (free governments headed by a popularly elected leader), which rely on the principle of virtue; and despotisms (enslaved governments headed by dictators), which rely on the principle of fear.

Quotes: "L'État, c'est moi" (Louis XIV, falsely attributed); "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely" (Lord Acton).

Practitioners: Egyptian Pharaohs, Imperial Rome/Medieval Europe/Tsarist Russia occasionally, Napoleonic France, South American Juntas, Central American/Middle Eastern/African Tin Pots...i.e., perhaps Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Caligula, Emperor Charlemagne and Ghengis Khan; certainly Attila the Hun, Tamerlane, Ivan the Terrible, Napoleon Bonaparte... shared this "type 1" megolomaniac mindset, just as Mussolini, Hitler, Francois Duvalier, Idi Amin, Bokassa, Manuel Noriega and Saddam Hussein did in modern times.

Manifestations: Absolutist, imperialist, theocratic, feudalist or fascist military dictatorship, at times bent on the sadistic desire or insane notion of World Domination (i.e., Hitler/Napoleon/Alexander).

Notable Results: At its worst, the conqueror/ruler brought slavery, subjection, tyranny, brutal exploitation and dehumanisation. In every instance, the pressure of an alien culture, with its different values and religious beliefs, and the imposition of new forms of social organisation meant the breakdown of traditional forms of life and the disruption of native civilisation.

Contemporary: Osama Bin Laden and other supreme mullahs preaching Islamic terrorism/expansionism, the corrupt House of Saud (harboured Idi Amin and other Islamic terrorists), Middle Eastern "Presidents for Life", the theocratically opressive Taliban in Afghanistan, also some elements of modern globalism, such as "Robber Baron" oligopolist/capitalist exploitation in Third World countries (i.e., sweat shops, child labour) with the willing acceptance of African warlords or other tin pot dictators eager to line their pockets.

Not Included: Benevolent absolute monarchs such as His Holiness the Pope, the Dalai Lama, and other king saints - obviously there is a difference between monarchies and despotisms, just as there is a difference between free subjects and oppressed slaves. Nor do we include the Holy Roman or British Empires, and to a lesser extent the French and Spanish Empires, which for the most part stood for culture and civilization, though they still disrupted native populations and were responsible for the odd massacre.

Comments: Disciples to this extreme right wing imperialist, fascist, or theocratic ideology have been with us throughout our entire history, and survive to this day. It is a personality disorder usually born of a malignant narcissism, such that you get the ridiculous spectacle of Napoleon crowning himself, or the psychotic hubris of Idi Amin awarding himself the VC and the rank and title of Field Marshal and "Conqueror of the British Empire", not to mention the heavy-weight boxing championship of Uganda. You get the semidivine voodoo power of Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier of Haiti, who would routinely terrorize his country's population with "Bogeymen". We are entertained by the lunatic "Emperor Bokassa I" of the "Central African Empire", who spent his country's entire annual budget on his own coronation in the late 1970s. We are not entertained by the savagery of Tamerlane, the 13th C. Turkik Mongul, who had a macabre sense of architecture — building towers out of the skulls of his victims.