ochlocracy

American  

[ok-lok-ruh-see] / ɒkˈlɒk rə si /

noun

1. government by the mob; mob rule; mobocracy.

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ochlocracy British  

/ ɒkˈlɒkrəsɪ, ˈɒkləˌkræt, ˌɒkləˈkrætɪk /

noun

1. rule by the mob; mobocracy

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Other Word Forms

• ochlocrat noun
• ochlocratic adjective
• ochlocratical adjective
• ochlocratically adverb

Etymology

Origin of ochlocracy

1475–85; < Greek ochlokratía, equivalent to óchl ( os ) mob + -o- -o- + -kratia -cracy

Example Sentences

The pure forms—necessary to the process of evolution—are, in so far as they are finite and in course of change, conjoined both with forms of their degeneration,—such as ochlocracy, &c., and with earlier transition-forms.

From Hegel's Philosophy of Mind by Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

Hence Pythagoras and his disciples, though they were vegetable-eaters, eschewed the bean as an article of diet, from its association with politics, demagogism, and ochlocracy.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 101, March, 1866 by Various

An ochlocracy is hateful to him, but if he shows himself an 'aristocrat' it is in the literal and etymological meaning of the word.

From The Extant Odes of Pindar by Pindar

By such perversion monarchy passes into tyranny, aristocracy into oligarchy, and democracy into ochlocracy or mob-rule.

From Moral Philosophy by Rickaby, Joseph , S. J.

We will not carry on any further our picture of the ochlocracy, in which all social union was entirely dissolved, and the state was surrendered to the arbitrary will of a turbulent populace.

From The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 2 of 2 by Müller, Karl Otfried