Ideocracy

Not to be confused with Idiocracy.

Ideocracy (a portmanteau word combining "ideology" and kratos, Greek for "power") is "governance of a state according to the principles of a particular (political) ideology; a state or country governed in this way".[1] It is government based on a monistic ideology—as distinct from an authoritarian state, which is characterized by strong central power and limited political freedoms.[2][3] An ideocratic state can either be totalitarian—citizens being forced to follow an ideology—or populist (citizens voluntarily following an ideology).[4]

Every government has ideological bases from which assumptions and policies are drawn; ideocracies are governments wherein one dominant ideology has become deeply ingrained into politics and generally politics has become deeply ingrained into all or most aspects of society. The ideology of an ideocracy presents itself as an absolute, universal, and supreme system for understanding social life, much as a god in a monotheistic belief system.

  1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary.
  2. ^ Piekalkiewicz, Jaroslaw; Penn, Alfred Wayne (1995). The Politics of Ideocracy. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0791422984.
  3. ^ Backes, Uwe; Kailitz, Steffen, eds. (2015). Ideocracies in Comparison: Legitimation – Cooptation – Repression. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1138848856.
  4. ^ Jaroslaw Piekalkiewicz and Alfred Wayne Penn, The Politics of Ideocracy, p. 22.