High-handedness is the noun: the quality, or the act, of using power in an unreasonable way. You can talk about one person’s high-handedness, or the high-handedness of a whole decision. Newspapers like this word because it names the pattern — not one rude sentence, but a way of ruling over people. It is formal. Friends would more often say “they just do whatever they want” than “their high-handedness.” Though actually, once you know the word, you start to notice that the complaint is usually the same: nobody was asked, and nobody was allowed to argue.