mobocracyn.
/mɒbˈɒkrəsi/, U.S. /mɑˈbɑkrəsi/ 1. Mob rule, government by a mob; an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > rule of any class or persons > [noun] > of the mob
ochlocratia1584
ochlocracy1594
mob government1703
mobocracy1754
mob law1809
mob-rule1837
pollarchy1853
1754 A. Murphy Gray's Inn Jrnl. No. 95 Another Mode of civil Policy, which cannot be called by a better name than a Mobocracy.
1789 F. Burney Diary 18 Nov. (1842) V. 76 Mr. Wilkes..quarrelled with a gentleman for saying the French government was become a democracy, and asserted it was rather a mobocracy.
1839 Times 18 July Henceforth,..mobocracy will be ‘at a heavier discount’ than ever.
1896 Overland Monthly Oct. 478/1 A broad, deep, and permanent separation into upper and lower classes..is compatible only with an oligarchy sustained by force or a mobocracy of confiscation and terror.
1950 J. Lait & L. Mortimer Chicago: Confidential ii. xxii. 170 The roots and the growth of mobocracy, a uniquely American manifestation..cannot be portrayed without looking backward.
1984 Daily Tel. 31 July 2/1 Awarding the damages, Mr Justice Caulfield said the union's actions had been ‘mobocracy’ and ‘intimidation at its worst’.
2018 Albuquerque (New Mexico) Jrnl. 7 Sept. a15 Mobocracy is synonymous with chaos, destruction, and loss of freedoms.
2. The mob as a ruling body or political force; a ruling or politically powerful mob.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > rule of any class or persons > ruling class or group > [noun] > of the mob
mobocracy1754
rabbleocracy1831
1754 A. Murphy Gray's Inn Jrnl. No. 95 The Mobocracy have further the legislative and executive Part of their Laws in their own Hands.
1819 Metropolis (ed. 2) II. 73 Without the nobles, the mobocracy would have it all their own way.
1856 Chambers's Jrnl. 6 225 The shopocracy in the pit, and the mobocracy in the gallery.
1885 Cent. Mag. 31 54 The American demagogue is the courtier of American mobocracy.
1921 G. B. Shaw Back to Methuselah Pref. p. lxii Bastiat had proved convincingly that Nature had arranged Economic Harmonies which would settle social questions far better than theocracies or aristocracies or mobocracies.
1949 F. L. Wright (title) Genius and the mobocracy.
1972 Contrast 28 Apr. 52 And I a part of this sick mobocracy.
2012 Daily Inter Lake (Kalispell, Montana) 2 Nov. (Opinion section) a4/5 Unfortunately there are currently several examples in Montana of the mobocracy in action.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1754