paternalism
Other forms: paternalisms
When a government or authority acts like it's your daddy, that's paternalism. This is usually an unwelcome kindness, as it comes with complete control and a lot of condescending statements like "it's for your own good."
The root word "paternal," meaning "like a father," is the clue to the word paternalism. The ism suffix turns the word into a noun. If you conquer a country and then look down on people for not speaking your language, then decide to stick around and help them out by making them do all the work while you make a lot of money, that would be one version of paternalism.
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the attitude (of a person or a government) that subordinates should be controlled in a fatherly way for their own goodtype of:attitude, mental attitudea complex mental state involving beliefs and feelings and values and dispositions to act in certain ways
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Vocabulary lists containing paternalism
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