Meritocracy vs Kakistocracy - What's the difference?
meritocracy | kakistocracy |
Rule by merit, and talent. By extension, now often used to describe a type of society where wealth, income, and social status are assigned through competition.
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 :
As nouns the difference between meritocracy and kakistocracy
is that meritocracy is rule by merit, and talent by extension, now often used to describe a type of society where wealth, income, and social status are assigned through competition while kakistocracy is government under the control of a nation's worst or least-qualified citizens.meritocracy
English
(wikipedia meritocracy)Noun
(meritocracies)Usage notes
Though widely used as a term of praise,Meritocracy's Lab Rat, by Timothy Noah the term was original coined as a satire, and a critique of awarding educational achievement.
Derived terms
* meritocrat * meritocratickakistocracy
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