When they go on TV, U.S. officials pretend there’s some chance that North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un will wake up one day and persuade all the people who help him run their bleak kakistocracy that they should commit mass suicide.
We are all familiar with democracy, autocracy, theocracy, and of course nowadays, kleptocracy, but kakistocracy is new; to me, at least.
NOUN
[mass noun] Government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state.
‘every government that has existed since the ancient Greeks has been a prime example of kakistocracy’
[count noun] A state or society governed by its least suitable or competent citizens.
‘the man in the street must share part of the blame for allowing such kakistocracy to entrench itself’
The opposite of kakistocracy is aristocracy, which means government of a state by its best citizens.
