The monocracy of a dictator, tyrant, or self-promoting royal, initially attains political power by the exercise of physical military force. The continuing imposition of such a condition on a populace depends directly on the effectiveness of the structures of subjugation. A compliant and rewarded secret service and an efficient and reliable intelligence system are absolute prerequisites. Supplementing these institutions and intrinsic to the sustaining of the monocracy, are an obedient and efficient police, a private guard and a military enforcement service. For dictatorships and monarchies in particular, the assistance of religious institutions in providing spiritual justifications and authenticity to the regime is of immeasurable assistance. Promoting the delusional belief that a dictator or monarch has been endorsed by an omnipotent deity reduces the problem of law and order of the subjects to weeding out the occasional free-thinker and non-conformist.

To further consolidate power it also is very helpful to impose a compulsory democratic vote upon the citizenry, whereby the solitary candidate of the dictator is the only candidate. This has the effect of both identifying any dissidents in order to nullify their voting capacity and also of ensuring a unanimous approval rating for the continuation of the status quo.

By promoting and preparing for a transfer of power to descendants many absolute rulers were able to establish a publicly accepted fantasy of hereditary power and a so-called royal family within which this power resided. The historical origins of such groups have emerged from successful expeditions of greed-motivated wars and devious political allegiances. Even in circumstances where over time real operational power has been politically transferred away from the royal group, with sufficient resources, propaganda and public relations machinery, it has still been possible to dupe the local general population into accepting that the group should continue to have an hereditary right to privilege. Whatever benefits and advantages these royal groups are supposed to possess and which are promoted endlessly to the loyalists, consumers and tourists, great care is usually taken not to mention in the same press release the achievements of citizen scientists, authors, artists, athletes, musicians, engineers, chefs or skateboarders. It is usually conceded however that they do spit and polish celebrations very well.