noun
- plural of timocracy; governments in which political power is correlated with wealth or property ownership
Usage: political science; formal
Examples
- Ancient Greek city-states often developed into timocracies where only wealthy citizens could hold office.
- The philosopher argued that timocracies inevitably lead to greater inequality.
- Historical timocracies required property ownership as a qualification for voting.
- Modern critics worry that some democracies are becoming timocracies in practice.
- The study compared various timocracies throughout history.
- Timocracies differ from pure plutocracies in their formal recognition of wealth-based power.