Sultanism is a form of authoritarian government characterized by the extreme personal presence of the ruler in all elements of governance. The ruler may or may not be present in economic or social life, and thus there may be pluralism in these areas, but this is never true of political power.

"... [T]he essential reality in a sultanistic regime is that all individuals, groups and institutions are permanently subject to the unpredictable and despotic intervention of the sultan, and thus all pluralism is precarious." Linz and Stepan, "Modern Nondemocratic Regimes", from Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996).

In sultanism, the sultan may or may not adopt a ruling ideology but is never bound by any rules or given ideology, even his own. The sultan may also use whatever forces he can to exercise his personal will, such as para-militaries or gangs. The clearest examples of sultanism are "Haiti under Duvaliers, the Dominican Republic under Trujillo, the Central African Republic under Bokassa, the Phillipines under Marcos, Iran under the Shah, Romania under Ceausescu, and North Korea under Kim Il Sung." Linz and Stepan, "Modern Nondemocratic Regimes", from Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996).

"...in the extreme case, sultanism tend[s] to arise whenever traditional domination develops an administration and a military force which are purely instruments of the master... Where domination... operates primarily on the basis of discretion, it will be called sultanism... The non-traditional element is not, however, rationalized in impersonal terms, but consists only in the extreme development of the ruler's discretion. It is this which distinguishes it from every form of rational authority." Max Weber, from Economy and Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978)