Person ridiculing authoritarian approach, but not loudly (7)
I believe the answer is:
ironist
'person' is the definition.
(ironist is a kind of person)
'authoritarian approach but not loudly' is the wordplay.
'authoritarian approach' becomes 'iron fist' (as in ruling with an iron fist).
'but not' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'loudly' becomes 'f' (short for forte - 'loud' in music).
'ironfist' with 'f' taken away is 'IRONIST'.
'ridiculing' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ironist that I've seen before include "One using a form of satire" , "Swift, for one" , "Quasi-satirical humorist" , "Mark Antony when making speech" , "One using opposites to humorous effect" .)