Word.ws English Dictionary

psephocracy

UK/psɪˈfɒkɹəsi/US/psiˈfɑkɹəsi/

psephocracy noun: 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.

Noun

psephocracy (uncountable)

  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...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...1966, Illustrated Weekly of Pakistan, pages 15 and 16

Examples of psephocracy in a sentence

  • The present system is more of a leadership than a referred system — the so called ‘psephocracy’.1970 February, Science Journal, 27/1:
  • 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:
  • They are not matters upon which, in a delegated democracy — a psephocracy — the authority of the ballot-box is any authority at all.1995, John Aneurin Grey Griffith, Public Law, Stevens & Sons, page 90:

Origin of psephocracy

From pseph- + -o- + -cracy.

Words formed from psephocracy

  • psephocrat

Questions about psephocracy

What does psephocracy mean?
Psephocracy means 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 do you use psephocracy in a sentence?
The present system is more of a leadership than a referred system — the so called ‘psephocracy’.
What part of speech is psephocracy?
Psephocracy is a noun.
How do you pronounce psephocracy?
Psephocracy is pronounced /psɪˈfɒkɹəsi/ (UK).

Words near psephocracy in the dictionary

  1. psephisms
  2. psephite
  3. psephites
  4. psephitic
  5. psepho-
  6. psephocracy
  7. psephocratic
  8. psephological
  9. psephologically
  10. psephologist
  11. psephologists

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: psephocracy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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