demarchy

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noun

Government by decision-makers who have been randomly selected by sortition (lot) from a pool of eligible citizens.

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Scrabble 19

Meanings

noundemarchy (countable and uncountable, plural demarchies)

plural demarchies

  1. countableuncountableGovernment by decision-makers who have been randomly selected by sortition (lot) from a pool of eligible citizens.

    In his recent book Is Democracy Possible? (1985) John Burnheim advocates a system that he calls ‘demarchy’, with striking resemblances to classical democracy. […] This is more significant for demarchies administering manufacturing processes, but would affect them all to some extent.

    1993, W. Paul Cockshott and Allin Cottrell, Towards a New Socialism, pages 163-164, 168
    1 more example

    Coined by Australian philosopher John Burnheim, a demarchy, or lottocracy, is a form of government in which the state is governed by randomly selected decision makers who have been selected from a pool of eligible citizens. Demarchies have been portrayed extensively in scifi, including Alastair Reynolds’s Revelation Space series of novels (where it’s used to flatten hierarchies), […]

    2014 June 12, George Dvorsky, “12 Futuristic Forms of Government That Could One Day Rule the World”, in Gizmodo

    Synonyms: lottocracy

Synonyms & antonyms

nounGovernment by decision-makers who have been randomly selected by sortition (lot) from a pool of eligible citizens.

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Origin

Cite this entry
APA

demarchy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/demarchy

MLA

“demarchy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/demarchy. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “demarchy,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/demarchy.

Source: demarchy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.