Kakistocracy vs Aristocracy - What's the difference?
kakistocracy | aristocracy |
Government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens.
* 1894 , James Russell Lowell,
* 1999 , Gang Deng, The Premodern Chinese Economy: Structural Equilibrium and Capitalist Sterility :
* 2000 , Tom H. Hastings, Ecology of War and Peace: Counting the Cost of Conflict :
The nobility, or the hereditary ruling class
Government by such a class, or a state with such a government
A class of people considered (not normally universally) superior to others
As nouns the difference between kakistocracy and aristocracy
is that kakistocracy is government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens while aristocracy is the nobility, or the hereditary ruling class.kakistocracy
English
Noun
(kakistocracies)Letters of James Russell Lowell]'' - ''To Joel Benton[1876, p.159:
- Is ours a "government of the people, by the people, for the people," or a kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?
- Thus, the problem was not whether corruption/power abuse was allowed, but how to keep a balance between uprightness and kakistocracy .
- Some nation-states have suffered what the Greeks called kakistocracy'—government by the worst of men. International law can, in theory if not always in practice, keep these ' kakistocracies from damaging too much.
External links
*World Wide Words: Kakistocracy*
Rick Finkelstein: Kakistocracy... A Word You Should KnowEnglish words suffixed with -cracy