Despots:

"In most contexts and for most people, the motivation to control is constrained by formal laws, informal social mores (e.g., enforced through gossip; Barkow, 1992), and by affective mechanisms (e.g., guilt) that promote social compromise and reciprocal social relationships (Baron, 1997; Trivers, 1971). For most people, adherence to these laws and mores provides benefits that are sufficient to avoid the risks associated with attempts to achieve, for instance, absolute despotic control (Simon, 1990). Moreover, there are also very likely to be basic differences in the personality (e.g., high on need for power, and low on social affiliation) of despots compared to most other people. Still, consideration of history’s despots allows a peeling away of these constraints and a more direct glimpse at the motivation to control. By definition, despots are individuals who have considerable social power and whose behavior is not typically constrained by affective or social consequences. With the absence of reciprocal cultural mores (i.e., democracy) and a professional police force and military that will suppress despotic behavior, these individuals and their coalitions gained control of the first six human civilizations—ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Aztec and Inca empires, and imperial India and China (Betzig, 1986, 1993). Across these and many other civilizations, the activities of despots were (and still are) centered on diverting the material and social resources of the culture to themselves and to their kin, typically to the detriment of many other people. On the basis of the historical record, they lived in opulence and the men almost always had exclusive sexual access to scores—sometimes thousands—of women (Betzig, 1986)."

David C. Geary

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"As with other traits, it is almost certain there are individual differences in the intensity of the motivation to control and individual differences in the manner in which it is expressed (Pratto, 1996). Nonetheless, gaining some level of control over the activities of daily life, important social relationships, and material resources affords many of the same benefits, albeit on a much smaller scale, as those enjoyed by despots."