kleptarchy

plural kleptarchies

1. Kleptocracy; rule by one or more thieves.

   First, there is this great outstanding fact: that from the day of our independence the soul of the American people has been growing more and more democratic, and where the spirit of democracy is, whatever the institutional maladjustment, even a kleptarchy cannot go far wrong.

   1920, Frederick Albert Cleveland, Arthur Eugene Buck, The budget and responsible government: a description and interpretation of the struggle for responsible government in the United States, The Macmillan Company