ochlocracy

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“
A democracy of ill or partially educated people sooner or later becomes an ochlocracy,[2] ruled not by the best, but by those who can work upon the self-interest of the badly or one-sidedly educated.

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Definitions (4)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun Government by the masses; mob rule.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (27)

  • Then we don't have democracy, the rule of representative government, but ochlocracy, the rule of the 'mob,' the mobile vulgus. —  No Compromise When You're Right!
  • "However, what they intended by democracy, as can be seen from Madison's definition of it was ochlocracy." —  No Compromise When You're Right!
  • If the Founding Fathers wanted us to confuse the terms of democracy with ochlocracy they would have used that term. —  No Compromise When You're Right!
  • If we lived in a mobocracy (also known as ochlocracy) we would vote and the majority would rule on every little issue. —  RutlandHerald.com
  • In ancient Greece, the rule of the mob - technically okhlo­kratia: ochlocracy - was considered one of the three bad forms of government, together with oligarchy and tyranny. —  New Statesman
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Etymologies (2)

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  1. French ochlocratie, from Greek okhlokratiā : okhlos, mob; see wegh- in Indo-European roots + -kratiā, -cracy.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Also ochlocraty; from French ochlocratie = Italian ochlocrazia, from Greek ὀχλοκρατια, mob-rule, from ὅχλος, the mob, + -κρατία, from κρατεῑν, rule.
 

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/ɑkˈlɑkrəsi/
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