-crat, -cracy, -cratic, -cratism, -cratically, -cracies +
(Greek: a suffix; govern, rule; strength, power, might, authority)
Good laws derive from evil habits.
—Macrobius
Two characteristics of government are that it cannot do anything quickly, and that it never knows when to quit.
—Jeremy Thorpe
albocracy
Government by white men or Europeans.
aleatocracy
A form of government in which the officials are decided by chance; such as, by drawing names from a hat.
Aleatocracy can be seen in Arthur C. Clarke's The Songs of Distant Earth.
androcracy, androcratic
The political rule by men or males; male supremacy.
anemocracy
A government controlled by the wind or by whim.
The miserable state of an anemocracy is when a people who put their trust in hurricanes are merely governed by the wind.
angelocracy
A government by angels.
antarchism
The principle of opposition to all forms of government, or to all restraint of individuals by laws.
argentocracy
The rule or paramount influence of money.
aristocracy
There are bad manners everywhere, but an aristocracy is bad manners organized.
—Henry James
aristocracy, aristocraticism
1. Literally in Greek, the government of a state by its “best” citizens.
2. That form of government in which the chief power lies in the hands of those who are most distinguished by birth or fortune; political supremacy of a privileged order; oligarchy.
3. The class to which such a ruling body belongs, a patrician order; the collective body of those who form a privileged class with regard to the government of their country; the nobles.
The term is popularly extended to include all those who by birth or fortune occupy a position distinctly above the rest of the community, and is also used figuratively of those who are superior in other respects.
aristocrat
A member of an aristocracy; strictly, one of a ruling oligarchy; hence, one of a patrician order, a noble; occasionally, one who favors an aristocratic form of government as opposed to a democracy.
aristocratism
The principles or practices of aristocrats; haughty exclusiveness.
arithmocracy, arithmocratic
A form of government in which governmental power is vested in the group that holds the numerical majority in a state.
autocracy
1. Absolute government.
2. A government in which one person has unrestricted control over others.
3. In medicine, the controlling influence exerted by nature or the vital principle on disease.
autocrat
A monarch of uncontrolled authority; an absolute, governor; one who rules with undisputed sway: “Autocrat of all the Russias”, a title of the Tsar of Russia.
The state! It is I! —Attributed to Louis XIV of France
autocratic
1. The principles or practices of autocrats.
2. Of the nature of, or pertaining to, an autocrat; absolute in authority, despotic.
Cross references of word families related directly, or indirectly, to: "master, lead, leading, ruler, ruling, govern":
-agogic;
agon-;
arch-;
dom-;
gov-;
magist-;
poten-;
regi-;
tyran-.
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