“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” — Winston Churchill
Our cherished word “democracy” comes to us from the Greek “dēmokratia.” Loosely translated, “demo” means “people” and “cracy” is a form of government. Or, as Abe Lincoln so eloquently put it, “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”
There are other types of government that also end in “cracy” — a lot of them, it turns out. It also turns out that these other types are not mutually exclusive and often have overlapping definitions.
Let’s look at these forms of governance beginning with one that’s familiar to anyone who’s cooled his or her heels in a long line: good old “bureaucracy,” which, of course, is a form of government made up of many bureaus (and, some would say, petty officials).
A couple other forms of government worth recognizing are “nomocracy,” one made up of rational laws and civic rights, and “electocracy,” in which a government is elected by the people who are then not able to directly participate in government decision making.
If you happen to prefer your government more disorganized than the one we already have, I suggest going with an adhocracy, which is rule by a government based on relatively disorganized principles and institutions.
If a totally disorganized government isn’t your thing, maybe being ruled by an “aristocracy,” or by the nobility, would suit you better. Or how about an “anocracy,” in which power is spread among elite groups. One of those elite ruling groups might be a “plutocracy” (from “ploutos,” Greek for “wealth”), which is rule by the wealthy.
If none of those work for you, consider a “stratocracy” (from the Greek word “stratos” or “army”), indicating rule by those in the military. Or perhaps a “hagiocracy” (from the Greek “hagio,” meaning “saint, holy”) is more to your liking. This form of government is also called a theocracy.
If being governed by some of the above ocracies doesn’t make you nervous enough, how about being subjected to the rules and regulations of Big Brother — or at least big business, which are pretty much the same thing. Think about it: How would you like to live in a bankocracy, which is obviously a government ruled by banks, or in a corporatocracy, which is rule by corporations.
If you’re not sufficiently concerned by the thought of those types of government, well then, we could always be ruled by computers. (I used to take comfort in the fact that computers like HAL 9000 from “2001: A Space Odyssey” were just science fiction, but now that A.I. has been unleashed among us . . . By the way, it’s rumored that HAL got its name because the letters H A L immediately precede I B M in the alphabet.)
A cyberocracy is one of the interconnected ways we could be governed by a computer. The other is by the machine’s use of algorithms in diverse levels of a bureaucracy, or an algocracy.
Next time we’ll continue our look at the terms used for various types of government created by good people, scoundrels and everybody in between.
Jim Witherell of Lewiston is a writer and lover of words whose work includes “L.L. Bean: The Man and His Company” and “Ed Muskie: Made in Maine.” He can be reached at jlwitherell19@gmail.com.
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