negarchy

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UK/ˈnɛɡɑːki/US/ˈnɛɡˌɑɹki/

noun

A form of status quo maintained by the interrelations of power structure and authority.

Scrabble 17

Meanings

nounnegarchy (countable and uncountable, plural negarchies)

plural negarchies

  1. countableuncountableA form of status quo maintained by the interrelations of power structure and authority.

    Daniel Deudney, Binding Powers, Bound States: The Logic and Geopolitics of Negarchy (paper presented at the International Studies Association, Washington, D.C., Mar. 28–Apr. 2, 1994) (on file with author)

    1994, Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems, volume 4, page 397
    1 more example

    Because the overall system architecture negates, it is appropriate to call the structural principle of this order negarchical and the overall order a negarchy. The tasks that define security negarchies are not arbitrary, and are intimately connected to the logics of both hierarchy and anarchy. Negarchy is the arrangement of institutions needed to prevent simultaneously the emergence of hierarchy and anarchy. In a workable negarchy, the particular configurations of negatives vary with the relative strengths of multiple threats, but the antithesis to hierarchy and anarchy remains constant. Understood in this way, negarchy is a third – and liberal – structural principle of political order, along with hierarchy and anarchy.

    1996, Daniel Deudney, “Binding sovereigns: authorities, structures, and geopolitics in Philadelphian systems” in State Sovereignty as Social Construct (Cambridge University Press), eds. Thomas J. Biersteker and Cynthia Weber, page 205

Origin

Coined by Daniel Deudney in his paper “Binding Powers, Bound States: The Logic and Geopolitics of Negarchy”, presented to the International Studies Association in Washington, D.C., 28th of March–2nd of April in 1994; formed as nega- (“negative”) + -archy (“rule”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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