Conservative MSP David McLetchie recalled the original Claim of Right, passed by the old Scots Parliament in 1689, which declared King James VII (James II of England) had forfeited the throne "because he had sought to change what it described as the fundamental constitution of the kingdom from a legal, limited monarchy to an arbitrary, despotic power".

BBC: SNP takes new Claim of Right approach

Leaving the press alone was one of the many things Zimbabwe's despotic leader, Robert Mugabe, promised as part of a power-sharing pact with Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which won a general election in 2008.

ECONOMIST: The media in southern Africa

As Kirgizstan's president, Askar Akaev (once optimistically hailed as Central Asia's Thomas Jefferson because of his democratic words), becomes increasingly despotic, local people grumble that the Americans have boosted his power by buying fuel from businesses close to the seat of power.

ECONOMIST: Will intervention foster democracy?