Autocracy vs. Totalitarianism — What's the Difference?

Autocracy is a system of government in which supreme power over a state is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regularized mechanisms of popular control (except perhaps for the implicit threat of coup d'état or other forms of rebellion).In earlier times, the term autocrat was coined as a favorable description of a ruler, having some connection to the concept of "lack of conflicts of interests" as well as an indication of grandeur and power. This use of the term continued into modern times, as the Russian Emperor was styled "Autocrat of all the Russias" as late as the early 20th century.

Totalitarianism is a concept for a form of government or political system that prohibits opposition parties, restricts individual opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high degree of control over public and private life. It is regarded as the most extreme and complete form of authoritarianism.

Government by a single person having unlimited power; despotism.

Of, relating to, being, or imposing a form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed

A country or state that is governed by a single person with unlimited power.

A practitioner or supporter of such a government.

(uncountable) A form of government in which unlimited power is held by a single individual.

A system of government in which the people have virtually no authority and the state wields absolute control, for example, a dictatorship.

(countable) An instance of this government.

A form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.)

Independent or self-derived power; absolute or controlling authority; supremacy.

The principle of complete and unrestricted power in government

Supreme, uncontrolled, unlimited authority, or right of governing in a single person, as of an autocrat.

Political independence or absolute sovereignty (of a state); autonomy.

The action of the vital principle, or of the instinctive powers, toward the preservation of the individual; also, the vital principle.

A political system governed by a single individual

A political theory favoring unlimited authority by a single individual