Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Government by the masses; mob rule.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The rule or ascendancy of the multitude or common people; mobocracy; mob-rule.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A form of government by the multitude; a mobocracy;
mob rule .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
Mob rule ;government by themasses ;mobocracy .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a political system in which a mob is the source of control; government by the masses
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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a democracy that departed from the civil and political equality which was its supposed basis, and gave ascendancy to a faction, was sometimes designated by the term ochlocracy, or the dominion of the rabble.
Mosaics of Grecian History Marcius Willson
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The latter is rightly called "ochlocracy" -- mob rule.
Progressive Bloggers 2010
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If we lived in a mobocracy (also known as ochlocracy) we would vote and the majority would rule on every little issue.
RutlandHerald.com 2009
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"ochlocracy," or government by the mob, in which the numbers have no real share: an oligarchy of the fiercest, the noisiest, the rashest, and the most shameless, which is surely swallowed up either by a despotism, as in
Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet An Autobiography Charles Kingsley 1847
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This is called grandstanding for the sake of ochlocracy.
Joe Should Go grrm 2010
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There can be ochlocracy in bicameral systems & democracy in unicameral ones. urgs Says:
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According to Polybius, the kyklos, or political cycle, rotates through three forms of government — democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy — and the degenerate forms of each of those three — ochlocracy, oligarchy, and tyranny:
Kyklos « Isegoria 2008
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Democratic process in pre-enlightenment society inevitably produces the worst kind of tyranny: tyranny of the fanatical mob what Plato named “ochlocracy”.
Obama and the law: about that little thing called “procedure” 2010
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Sadly, the country is terrorized and under control of ochlocracy.
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Sadly, the country is terrorized and under control of ochlocracy. '
asativum commented on the word ochlocracy
This sounds like rule by punctuality.
June 14, 2008
yarb commented on the word ochlocracy
Or rule by scotsmen.
June 14, 2008
bilby commented on the word ochlocracy
Duke of Cumberland pretty much put an end to that.
June 14, 2008