Ochlocrat and ochlocratic are also found. Ochlocracy – the ‘ch’ is pronounced as a ‘k’, IPA: / ɒk 'lɒk rə sɪ/ – means either ‘rule by the mob’ or ‘the mob that rules’: the first part comes from the Greek ὄχλος ( ochlos, ‘crowd’, ‘throng’, ‘mob’). Other, less common, words with the ending –(o)cracy include: A plutocrat is a member of this class, and the adjective plutocratic means ‘characteristic of a plutocracy or a plutocrat’. The word is also used to refer to the class of wealthy individuals who exercise power or have great influence in a country by reason of their wealth. Plutocracy means ‘rule by the wealthy’: the first part comes from the Greek πλοῦτος ( ploutos, ‘wealth’, ‘riches’).
Rather differently, bureaucracy may refer collectively to the civil servants and other officials who work within a bureaucracy, while a bureaucrat is an (often high-ranking) official within a bureaucracy, and the adjective bureaucratic describes such a system, often pejoratively.
The word is sometimes used pejoratively of a system of administration that is over-complex or over-rigid so that action is impeded by official procedures, red tape, etc. The word bureaucracy may denote either a complex administrative system designed to deal with a large amount of work in a routine fashion or government by such a system, i.e., one in which most decisions are taken by state officials or civil servants rather than by elected representatives. ( Bureau, which derives from the Late Latin burra (shaggy cloth), was originally a type of cloth used for covering desks and tables.) A bureau may be either a type of writing desk (with drawers, pigeon holes, etc.) or an office or agency providing a service to the public (such as an employment bureau, a marriage bureau or a news bureau) or a government department. The first part of the word comes from the Greek κάκιστος, ( kakistos), ‘worst’.īureau, the first part of the word bureaucracy, came into English from French. Insofar as aristocracy means ‘rule by the best (people)’, its polar opposite is kakistocracy, i.e., rule by the worst (people), those least fitted by character and/or intellect to rule. The adjective aristocratic means ‘characteristic of the ‘upper class’’, and the noun aristocrat denotes a member of this class.
In contemporary English the word aristocracy is almost always used as a collective term for the nobility or the ‘upper class’. The Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, believed that it is those who are best fitted by character and intellect to rule at other times ‘the best’ have been equated with the wealthy or the ‘best born’, i.e., the nobility. Clearly there may be disagreement about who are the best people (to rule). For help with the pronunciation of these words and other words ending –cracy, -crat, -cratic see the Note on Pronunciation.Īristocracy means ‘rule by the best (people)’: the first part of the word comes from the Greek ἄριστος ( aristos), ‘best’. There is an adjective democratic, meaning ‘related to, or distinctive of, democracy’, and a noun democrat, a person who is committed to, or a defender of, democratic institutions. For some discussion of the concept of democracy and the distinctive marks of a democratic constitution see Democracy. The most common words in this group are democracy, aristocracy, bureaucracy, and plutocracy.ĭemocracy means ‘rule by the people’: the first part of the word comes from the Greek δῆμος ( dēmos), ‘the (common) people’. The ending –cracy comes from the Greek κράτος ( kratos), which means ‘rule’, ‘power’, or ‘sovereignty’, and in all but a few cases the first part of the word also has a Greek derivation. A number of words have the ending –(o)cracy and serve to identify who are the rulers, the dominant or most powerful class, within a nation or other large social group - though some of these words also have other uses (see below).
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