Meaning of psephocracy | Babel Free

Definitions

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.

uncountable

Examples

“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.”

“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.”

“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 […]”

“The present⟳ system is more of a leadership than a referred system — the so called ‘psephocracy’.”

“Nor do I see⟳ much future for mesocracy, the rule⟳ of the middle-class. Small is their voting power, psephocracy, if […]”

“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.”

“I do not of course suggest⟳ that there are circumstances presently foreseeable in which an elected government might seek⟳ to prolong its own⟳ existence by subverting the people’s right to vote⟳, or otherwise to effect fundamental and undemocratic changes in the nature of our governmental institutions. My thesis is that the citizen’s democratic rights go hand in hand with other fundamental rights; the latter, certainly, may in reality be more imaginably at risk⟳, in any given set⟳ of political circumstances, than the former. The point⟳ is that both are or should be off limits for our elected representatives. They are not matters upon which, in a delegated democracy — a psephocracy — the authority of the ballot-box is any authority at all. It is a premise of elective government, where free people are the voters, that these principles be observed by whoever is elected.”

“In a plebiscitary democracy threatening to become⟳ a psephocracy, numbers count⟳; and though in the last⟳ six decades rural India has arrived politically, even the cause of rural India has now to be processed through the urban middle-class consciousness.”

“Indian democracy is fast degenerating into a psephocracy — a system totally dominated by electoral victories and defeats. The moment you enter⟳ office, you begin⟳ to think⟳ of the next election.”

CEFR level