anocracy

plural anocracies

1. countableuncountablegovernmentA political system which is neither fully democratic nor fully autocratic, often being vulnerable to political instability.

   As the number of autocracies in the world began to decline in the late 1980s, the number of anocracies began to increase.

   2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 374

   3 more examples

   She notes that on the scale researchers in her field employ, the US in the last few years has slipped into the range of anocracy.

   2022 January 13, HW Brands, “How Civil Wars Start by Barbara F Walter review – sounding the alarm”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 19 Jul 2022

   When a country moves into the anocracy zone, the risk of political violence reaches its peak; citizens feel uncertain about their government’s power and legitimacy. Compared with democracies, anocracies with more democratic than autocratic features are three times more likely to experience political instability or civil war.

   2022 January 24, Barbara F. Walter, “Why should we worry that the U.S. could become an ‘anocracy’ again? Because of the threat of civil war.”, in The Washington Post, archived from the original on 26 Jan 2022

   Prof Barbara Walter notes in her book How Civil Wars Start that two conditions are key: ethnic factionalism and anocracy – when a country is neither fully democratic nor fully autocratic.

   2023 June 16, “The Guardian view on Trump and political violence: more than words”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 01 Aug 2023

2. countableuncountableA government not lacking governmental power but absent of political domination.