gerontocracy
/ˌdʒɛrənˈtɒkrəsi
/noun
1A state, society, or group governed by old people.It's no surprise that American media organizations are gerontocracies....
- Some of your friends are amazed when you say this, but you reason that a gerontocracy can fashion the future for just so long.
- The author was, of course, the first to depict a totalitarian gerontocracy.
1.1 [mass noun] Government based on rule by old people.We have to admit that stubborn gerontocracy has been a major obstacle to reforming politics due to the aged politicians' obstinacy and narrow-mindedness....
- The old nobility dominated the officer corps and, since there was no retirement system, gerontocracy prevailed: seniority counted for everything.
- This has been referred to as gerontocracy, but it may be preferable to see it as an expression of a link with past generations.
Derivatives
gerontocrat
- Inevitably, the gerontocrats began to die off: Suslov, Brezhnev, Andropov, Ustinov, and Chernenko.
- Don't forget that we gerontocrats who were reading it as it happened had to wait a month, at least, between issues.
- It would not be difficult to characterise him as some grumpy gerontocrat with a giant chip on his shoulder.
gerontocratic
- Bureaucratization and gerontocratic tendencies characterized the party.
- It was the first movement of solidarity where the new young generation asked for their place in a society which had become gerontocratic.
- This topsy-turvy logic of children having the power to subordinate adults as their bona led to the gerontocratic reversals of the civil wars.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from Greek gerōn, geront- 'old man' + -cracy.