mandarinate

plural mandarinates

1. obsoleteThe status of holding a position as a mandarin.First known use 18th–19th c.
2. The collective body of mandarins.First known use 19th c.

   He criticized the monarchy and the mandarinate for failing to save the country and to help the people in their hour of greatest need.

   2016, Christopher Goscha, The Penguin History of Modern Vietnam, Penguin, published 2017, page 101

   1 more example

   As higher education, claiming more and more years of one’s life, widens the space between those who possess it and those who do not, and as the enlightenment of the public wanes relatively to the superior enlightenment of the learned castes and professions, the mandarinate will infallibly draw to itself a greater and greater share of social power.

   1901, Edward Alsworth Ross, Social Control: A Survey of the Foundations of Order, page 88

3. A political form of rule by mandarins.
4. figurativelyA type of government marked by excessive bureaucracy and Byzantine regulations.

   Far from being a model of democracy, the EU is associated with an arrogant, out-of-touch mandarinate that issues rules and edicts with paternalistic and highhanded disregard for ordinary citizens.

   2011, Ian Buruma, Europe without Turkey