repressive
/rɪˈprɛsɪv
/adjective
1(Especially of a social or political system) inhibiting or restraining personal freedom: a repressive regime...
- It is also a politically safe position for the narrator who must negotiate his way through a repressive political system.
- France was ruled by an absolutist monarchy and dominated by a repressive mercantilist economic policy regime.
- In any case, when we look at women's resistance to government pressure, I think we should avoid the temptation to turn them into pure political subversives critiquing a repressive government.
Synonyms
oppressive, authoritarian, despotic, tyrannical, tyrannous, dictatorial, fascist, autocratic, undemocratic, anti-democratic, totalitarian, dominating, coercive, draconian, iron-fisted, harsh, severe, strict, tough, cruel, brutal;
undemocratic, illiberal
rare suppressive
1.1Inhibiting or preventing the expression or awareness of thoughts or desires: a repressive moral code...
- This is evident not only in the imposition of an alien, Eurocentric repressive moral code, but also in acts of violence and sexual exploitation.
- Neil Cox presents a long-overdue discussion of the Surrealist fascination with the Marquis de Sade, which he argues was based on the theme of ‘desire frustrated by repressive authority’.
- As the story proceeds, the stirring of these erotic impulses in the midst of a society governed by a strict, repressive code of honor creates unpredictable complications.
Derivatives
repressively
- Unlike most Americans, having lived in the Soviet Union, I have some experiences of a society where a national ID system was used relatively repressively.
- For Michel, the authority of the museum operates in tandem with the authority of the state, and both function repressively to produce a passive viewer/subject.
- When tracing minorities over time, we have repeatedly observed that violent political action follows a period of nonviolent activity that was either ignored or dealt with repressively.
repressiveness
- A whole school of British film and television drama perpetuates the romanticized myth of working-class life - a kind of ‘noble savage’ genre that utterly falsifies the grim repressiveness that this life actually embodies.
- The casual repressiveness of these images, the one frightening, the other poignant, itself seems sewn into the very fabric of Afghani society.
- This was because of its repressiveness, which weakened its apparatus and opened up the need for public participation.