kakistocracy
Americannoun
Usage
What does kakistocracy mean? A kakistocracy is a government in which the worst people are in charge. This obscure word is used in political commentary, especially to call out a government considered corrupt or incompetent. Example: If you don’t vote, you’re basically asking for a kakistocracy, because of course the worst people want to be in power.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of kakistocracy
1820–30; < Greek kákisto ( s ), superlative of kakós bad + -cracy
Explanation
A government run by the least qualified people can be called a kakistocracy. The term kakistocracy first appeared in the 17th century, coined from the Greek kakistos, "worst," and -cracy, "rule by," which is used in words like aristocracy and democracy. It's often used to disparage governments that are seen as inept, corrupt, or both. If a president appointed her close friends and relatives to fill all the most important cabinet jobs, despite their lack of experience, it would be an example of kakistocracy.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A kakistocracy has a broad impact on society.
From Salon • May 24, 2019
In contrast, kakistocracy was government by the unskilled, unknowledgeable and unvirtuous.
From The Guardian • Apr. 18, 2018
What would it look like to live under a kakistocracy, Greek for “government by the worst men”?
From Slate • Nov. 18, 2016
"In the seventh year of the Reagan kakistocracy, the medical dyes shooting through my arterial freeways were forced to make a detour around a major obstruction," he writes with calculated self-mockery.
From Time Magazine Archive
He was not concerned with aristocracy in general, but with the particular kakistocracy that had disgraced his native land.
From The Life and Works of Friedrich Schiller by Thomas, Calvin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
