psephocracy
nounUK /psɪˈfɒkɹəsi/ · US /psiˈfɑkɹəsi/
Etymology From pseph- + -o- + -cracy.
1
Government by ballot-elected representatives; representative democracy. Often contrasted with democracy, with which it is unfavourably compared for its lack of demotic participation in the political process outside of elections.
- How then did Britain […] become a democracy? […] It never did... What we do have is representative government, or the rule of the ballot-box, or (in one word) psephocracy. […] Psephocracy on the British model has been extended, thanks to the advice of British psephocrats, to a couple of dozen nations.1966 April 15, New Statesman, 531/1 and 531/2
- For, true democracy — the acme of good government — and not psephocracy, has its exemplar in all traditional governments of different regions of Black Africa. Our ancestors had ever gone through the charades of resisting unusual dictatorial system of authority asserted by any chief over the community. […] An example of our fathers’ democracy was Kgotla which was recently dispensed with few months ago in Bechuanaland to be replaced with the old fashioned pantomime psephocracy.1966, Illustrated Weekly of Pakistan, pages 15 and 16
4 more examples
- Technically, democracy is a form of government in which ultimate power rests with the governed. Or something. If you try to define it more closely you get more and more involved, and when you try to clear your mind by going back to Athens where it all began, you find the whole system was supported by a vast voteless slave population and you give up in despair. So let us leave it at that. But, in a popular sense, “democratic” means something else: an attitude, an instinct, a way of doing things, which consults people in advance, and takes account of their views and wishes and ideas before making final decisions. The former, technical democracy, the democracy of the ballot box, is sometimes called psephocracy, and because I want to treat them separately here, I will keep the distinction. […] Then, on the principle of no taxation without representation, democracy becomes psephocracy, and those who contribute the money demand the right to vote on the method of spending it. [¶] It is interesting to watch the growth of psephocracy […]1967, Antony Jay, Management and Machiavelli: An Inquiry into the Politics of Corporate Life, pages 219 and 222 (Holt, Rinehart and Winston)
- The present system is more of a leadership than a referred system — the so called ‘psephocracy’.1970 February, Science Journal, 27/1:
- Nor do I see much future for mesocracy, the rule of the middle-class. Small is their voting power, psephocracy, if […]1971, Ivor John Carnegie Brown, Random Words, Bodley Head, page 48:
- The people are not the government; what they do is elect it; and so the pedant would say we have in this country not democracy, but psephocracy.1994, Modern Law Review, volume 57, page 226:
- Derived terms
- psephocrat
- Related terms
- psephograph, psephology