Cracy Words: “albocracy” to “gynecocracy”,
Part 1 of 2.
Words that include: -crat, -cracy, -cratic, -cratism,
-cratically, -cracies
(Greek: a suffix; govern, rule; strength, power, might, authority).
Good laws derive from evil habits.
—Macrobius
albocracy:
Government by “white” men or Europeans.
androcracy, androcratic:
The rule of a man or the male; male supremacy.
anemocracy:
A government controlled by the wind. The miserable state of an anemocracy is when a people who put their trust in hurricanes are merely governed by the wind.
angelocracy:
A government by angels.
antarchism:
The principle of opposition to all forms of government, or to all restraint of individuals by laws.
argentocracy:
The rule or paramount influence of money.
aristocracy, aristocraticism:
1. Literally in Greek, the government of a state by its “best” citizens.
2. That form of government in which the chief power lies in the hands of those who are most distinguished by birth or fortune; political supremacy of a privileged order; oligarchy.
3. The class to which such a ruling body belongs, a patrician order; the collective body of those who form a privileged class with regard to the government of their country; the nobles. The term is popularly extended to include all those who by birth or fortune occupy a position distinctly above the rest of the community, and is also used figuratively of those who are superior in other respects.
aristocrat:
A member of an aristocracy; strictly, one of a ruling oligarchy; hence, one of a patrician order, a noble; occasionally, one who favors an aristocratic form of government as opposed to a democracy.
aristocratism:
The principles or practices of aristocrats; haughty exclusiveness.
arithmocracy, arithmocratic:
A form of government in which governmental power is vested in the group that holds the numerical majority in a state.
autocracy:
1. Absolute government.
2. A government in which one person has unrestricted control over others.
3. In medicine, the controlling influence exerted by nature or the vital principle on disease.
autocrat:
A monarch of uncontrolled authority; an absolute, governor; one who rules with undisputed sway. (“Autocrat of all the Russias”, a title of the Tsar of Russia).
The state! It is I!
—Attributed to Louis XIV of France
autocratic:
The principles or practices of autocrats.
autocratism:
Of the nature of, or pertaining to, an autocrat; absolute in authority, despotic.
barbarocracy:
Government or rule by barbarians, as that of Italy by the German emperors.
bureaucracy, bureaucratic, bureaucratism:
1. Government by officials collectively.
2. Rule by “desks” or government officials.
The actual work of government is too unglamorous
for the people who govern us to do. Important elected officeholders and high appointed officials create bureaucratic departments to perform the humdrum tasks of national supervision. Government proposes, bureaucracy disposes; and the bureaucracy must dispose of government proposals by dumping them on us.
From a Parliment of Whores
by P.J. O’Rourke (New York:
The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1991), p. 85.
bureaucrat:
An official who endeavours to concentrate administrative power in his bureau (government office); a member of a bureaucracy.
capelocracy:
The shopkeeping “interest” or class.
cenocracy:
New government.
cenodemocracy:
New people’s government.
chirocracy:
Government by a strong hand or by physical force.
Christocracy, Christocratic:
The rule or government of Christ or a government based on the teachings of Christ versus materialistic or perceived non-Christian beliefs.
chromatocracy:
1. Rule by a single race.
2. A ruling class of a particular color; e.g. of white men.
chrysocracy:
Rule of the wealthy; plutocracy.
cosmocrat, cosmocratic:
Lord or ruler of the world; “the prince of this world”.
cosmocracy:
Control of the whole world.
democracy:
1. Government by the people; that form of government in which the sovereign power resides in the people as a whole, and is exercised either directly by them (as in the small republics of antiquity) or by officers elected by them. In mod. use often more vaguely denoting a social state in which all have equal rights, without hereditary or arbitrary differences of rank or privilege.
2. A state or community in which the government is vested in the people as a whole.
Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a domocracy the whores are us.
From a Parliment of Whores by P.J. O’Rourke
(New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1991), p. 233.
democrat:
1. An adherent or advocate of democracy; originally, one of the republicans of the French Revolution of 1790 (opposed to aristocrat).
2. A member of the Democratic party, a political party in the U.S.
democratic:
1. Of the nature of, or characterized by, democracy; advocating or upholding democracy.
2. Name of the political party originally called Anti-Federal and afterwards Democratic-Republican, initially favoring strict interpretation of the Constitution with regard to the powers of the general government and of individual States, and the least possible interference with local and individual liberty; in opposition to the party now (since 1854) called Republican (formerly called Federals and Whigs).
3. Pertaining to, or referring to, the Democratic party of the United States.
demonocratism:
Democracy as a principle or system.
demonocracy:
The rule of demons, a ruling body of demons.
demonarchy:
The rule or dominion of a demon.
despotocracy:
Government by a despot; the rule of a despot.
diabolocracy:
Government ruled by the devil.
dulocracy, doulocracy:
Government by slaves; the rule of slaves.
ergatocracy, ergatocratic:
A government controlled by workers.
geocratic:
1. Applied to earth-movements that reduce the area of the earth’s surface covered by water (opposite of hydrocratic).
2. Of or pertaining to the predominant influence of the natural environment on man.
gerontocracy, gerontocratic:
The system of government by old men; a governing body consisting of old men.
graocracy:
Government by an old woman or old women.
gynecocracy:
Government by a woman or women; female rule or mastery; depreciatingly, petticoat government.