Tyranny can be defined as a cruel and oppressive government or rule. It is the government or authority of a tyrant where the country is governed by an absolute ruler and his arbitrary or despotic exercise of power over the subjects and others, is not authorized by law or justice or is not requisite for the purposes of government. According to Plato, “Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.” In a tyranny the despot or the dictator is omnipotent, the subjects have to abide by him, hence the national cause is lost and the commoners suffer. No fundamental rights are guaranteed to the citizens of a tyranny. Some of the famous despots or tyrants of the twentieth century are Muamar el-Gaddafi of Libya, Adolf Hitler of Germany, Benito Mussolini of Italy and Saddam Hussein of Iraq. In the words of Edmund Burke, “Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.”
