[1] It is government based on a monistic ideology—as distinct from an authoritarian state, which is characterized by strong central power and limited political freedoms.
[8] Ideocracies derive political legitimacy, in the view of Piekalkiewicz and Penn, from one of the following ideological sources: nation, race, class, or culture.
[9] They also believe that ideocrats will project their own feelings of guilt onto groups of people—Jews, communists, capitalists, heretics—as forces undermining the ideocracy.
Blame for failures of policy is diverted away from the ideocrats onto the scapegoats, who are subjected to mob attacks, terrorism, show trials, and stylized punishments.
[15] A small minority of self-actualisers, tolerant of ambiguity, are able to resist the monistic belief system and continue to search long-term for new ideas and complex answers.
Both Catholic and Protestant extremists in Northern Ireland sought ideocratic solutions,[clarification needed] but were thwarted by British troops.
The populist form of ideocracy has been an important force in Latin American political history, where many charismatic leaders have emerged since the beginning of the 20th century.
[41] [42] Uwe Backes lists China,[43] North Korea[44] and Cuba[45] as regimes currently showing ideocratic tendencies.