Psephocracy
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Government by ballot-elected representatives; representative democracy. Often contrasted with democracy, with which it is unfavourably compared for its lack of demotic participation in the political process outside of elections. uncountable
"How then did Britain […] become a democracy? […] It never did... What we do have is representative government, or the rule of the ballot-box, or (in one word) psephocracy. […] Psephocracy on the British model has been extended, thanks to the advice of British psephocrats, to a couple of dozen nations."
Example
More examples"How then did Britain […] become a democracy? […] It never did... What we do have is representative government, or the rule of the ballot-box, or (in one word) psephocracy. […] Psephocracy on the British model has been extended, thanks to the advice of British psephocrats, to a couple of dozen nations."
Etymology
From pseph- + -o- + -cracy.
Related phrases
More for "psephocracy"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.