Soft despotism
Soft despotism is the term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing a state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism also called 'hard despotism' in the sense that it is not obvious to the people.
Soft despotism allows people the illusion that they are in control, when in fact they relieve oneself very little influence over their government. Soft despotism breeds fear, uncertainty, and doubt in the general populace. Alexis de Tocqueville observed that this trend was avoided in America only by the "habits of the heart" of its 19th-century populace.