militocracy

English

Etymology

From milit(ary) +‎ -ocracy.

Noun

militocracy (countable and uncountable, plural militocracies)

1. The government of the armed forces.

   Synonym: stratocracy

   • 1968, Stanislav Andreski, “Postscript to the second edition”, in Military Organization and Society, 2nd edition, University of California Press, page 185:

     Germany under Wilhelm II and Poland under Pilsudski exemplify a variant of militocracy where political preponderance and economic favours were restricted to the officer corps.

   • 2023, Peter Turchin, End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration‎, Penguin, →ISBN:

     Early states were usually governed by militocracies, whose main source of social power was simply force. This was a consequence of one of the most important principles of social evolution, namely that “war made the state, and states made war.”

See also

• chirocracy