Kakistocracy
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens.
"Therefore we need not make any scruple of praying against […] those restlesse spirits who can no longer live, then be stickling and medling; who are stung with a perpetuall itch of changing and innovating, transforming our old Hierarchy into a new Presbytery, and this againe into a newer Independency; and our well-temperd Monarchy into a mad kinde of Kakistocracy."
Example
More examples"The reality is that we live in a kakistocracy. However, knowing how you are and what media you consume, you will say that it's a different reality."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek κάκιστος (kákistos, “worst”), superlative of κακός (kakós, “bad”) + -κρατία (-kratía, “power, rule, government”) (corresponding to -cracy). The word was used, perhaps re-coined, by the English author Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866) in his 1829 novella The Misfortunes of Elphin as the opposite of aristocracy (see second quotation).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.