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Yeltsinism

Yeltsinism noun: the outward appearance of democracy, while actually concentrating power in a form of authoritarianism.

Noun

Yeltsinism (uncountable)

  1. (disapproving) the outward appearance of democracy, while actually concentrating power in a form of authoritarianism
    • It thus seems that the 'constitutional coup' brought about a 'Yeltsinism without Yeltsin', a surgical operation that aimed at prolonging the life of Yeltsinism, even if this entailed the removal of Yeltsin himself and the institution of measures against the corruption and nepotism that had gone...2000, Mohamed Sid-Ahmed, Al-Ahram Weekly, Issue No. 464, Putin's impossible equation
  2. (disapproving) the economic and social chaos as a result of the decline of the authority of the Russian state
    • All the while, a bogeyman served him well—not a return to communism, Yeltsin’s scarecrow, but the chaos of Yeltsinism.2015, Stephen Kotkin, Foreign Affairs, CFR, The Resistible Rise of Vladimir Putin

Origin of Yeltsinism

From Yeltsin + -ism.

Questions about Yeltsinism

What does Yeltsinism mean?
Yeltsinism means the outward appearance of democracy, while actually concentrating power in a form of authoritarianism.
What part of speech is Yeltsinism?
Yeltsinism is a noun.

Words near Yeltsinism in the dictionary

  1. Yelton
  2. Yeltons
  3. yelts
  4. Yeltsin
  5. Yeltsinian
  6. Yeltsinism
  7. Yeltsinite
  8. Yeltsinites
  9. yelve
  10. Yelvertoft
  11. Yelverton

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Yeltsinism (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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