panarchy

Noun

panarchy (countable and uncountable, plural panarchies)

1. The individual's right to choose any form of government without being forced to move from their current locale.
   • 1860 article by “Panarchy” de Puydt
2. Dynamic symmetry across multiple scales.
   • In panarchies, transformational change can be generated from below or from above.2001, Lance H. Gunderson, C. S. Holling, Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems, →ISBN, page 25
3. An inclusive, multilateral system in which all parties may participate meaningfully.
   • The overlapping governance networks of panarchy have facilitated a context conducive to the above competing multilateralisms.2006, W.A. Knight, “Plurilateral Multilateralism: Canada's Emerging International Policy?”, in Andrew F. Cooper, Dane Rowlands, editors, Canada Among Nations, →ISBN, page 100
4. (rare) Rule by all; a system of governance in which each person has absolute power.
   • If everyone all at once wanted to know who won the Stanley Cup in 1968 they could have the information simultaneously; cyberspace as the site of Unamuno's panarchy, where each one is king.2001, David Trend, Reading Digital Culture, →ISBN, page 148
5. (rare) Rule of all; absolute or total rule.
   • These contentions give rise to systems of political philosophy which range all the way from anarchy to panarchy; from the doctrine that government should do nothing to the doctrine that it should do everything.1909, Samuel Eagle Forman, A Good Word for Democracy, page 91
6. (poetic, rare) An all-encompassing realm.
   • Some held that God, and all the heavenly powers, / As with the starry panarchy of space, / Were of one essence, like divine and high;1839, Philip James Bailey, Festus: A Poem, published 1860, page 369