- Noun:
- “government by the worst element of a society,” 1829, coined (by Thomas Love Peacock) on analogy of its opposite, aristocracy, from Greek kakistos “worst,” superlative of kakos “bad” (which perhaps is related to the general Indo-European word for “defecate;” see caco-) + -cracy. Perhaps the closest word in ancient Greek was kakonomia “a bad system of laws and government,” hence kakonomos “with bad laws, ill-governed.
- Synonyms:
- ochlocracy
- mob rule
- choas
- misrule
- dystrumpia
- Usage
- “Luckily we have one word that sums it all up: a kakistocracy, which literally means government by the worst element of a society. A kakistocracy is a government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens. Trump plans to bring us the worst of both.”
- Encountered
- after being pointed in that direction… article on alternet.org Degeneration Nation: It Takes a Village of Idiots to Raise a Kakistocracy Like Donald Trump’ –
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