draconianism

plural draconianisms · alternative Draconianism

1. uncountableusuallyA system of cruel or harsh laws.

   1 more example

   When an organization has selected its mission and laid out its strategies for attaining it, the job duties inherent in those functions must be monitored to determined that they are being performed adequately. This aspect of monitoring may smack of draconianism or Taylorism, but it is not. All organizations that are successful over time monitor their progress and internal functions.

   2002, Carolyn J. Downey; Fenwick W. English; Larry E. Frase; R. Gerald Melton; William K. Poston, Jr.; Betty E. Steffy, “Strategy Thirty-six: Monitor the Curriculum”, in 50 Ways to Raise Students’ Test Scores: Standards for High Performing Schools: Leveling the Playing Field for All Learners (Cutting Edge Practices Series), Johnston, Ia.: Curriculum Management Systems, Inc., →OCLC, Standard Five (Establish Curriculum Expectations, Monitoring, and Accountability), page 148

plural Draconianisms

1. uncountableusuallyAlternative letter-case form of draconianism.

   What a store of shame and sorrow is he laying up for himself! I never much admired the vaunt of Draconianism, ‘And all this I dare do, because I dare,’ yet what but this is Lord Byron’s plea!

   1819, William Gifford, letter to John Murray; quoted in Samuel Smiles, A Publisher and His Friends: Memoir and Correspondence of the Late John Murray, […], volume I, London: John Murray, […]; New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, […], 1891, →OCLC, page 404

   4 more examples

   This latter development is one of the most interesting of all Nazi Draconianisms. Under the Hereditary Farms Law of 1933, all farms up to 312 acres that are capable of supporting a family can never be mortgaged or sold and must be passed on undivided by the owner after his death to the eldest (in some cases the youngest) male heir.

   1939 October, “Germany I: ‘We Are Living in a Fortress’”, in Fortune, volume XX, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 126, column 2

   Keane could hardly have laid it on the line more eloquently in his press conference that week, that this was discipline rather than Draconianism. There wasn’t a trace of self-doubt from the manager over the action he’d taken.

   2008 July, Graeme Anderson, “All at Sea and a Dose of the Blues”, in In Keane We Trust: The Story of a Footballing City’s Faith in One Man: A Record of Sunderland’s 2007-08 Season, Ireland: Sports-i, →ISBN, page 217

   But, having seen what monumentally disastrous consequences the Draconianism of their papal predecessors caused, no pope since then could possibly be excusably ignorant of how evil such Draconianism is as a result of the consequences it is all too likely to precipitate regardless of whether or not it is a punishment not exceeding the crime.

   2012 April 17, Edward N. Haas, “On Secret Sins”, in What Happens in Death + a Few Related Topics, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, footnote 1, page 129

   The endpoint of Draconianism may not necessarily have been the destination when Hair set sail but my, he got us there in the end, didn’t he? And though I warned of it, I never really thought that what I wrote would become vital in the vain hope of upholding civil liberty.

   2016, Ed Spencer, “Joined-up thought”, in The People’s Republic of Absurdia or Blighty: The State We’re In, London; Suffield, Norfolk: Sigmund Fraud Books, →ISBN, page 216