Polycracy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. This term describes an administrative framework in which multiple governing entities share responsibility and authority
2. A political system where various leaders or institutions exercise power together stands as a distinctive form of governance
3. A system of rule where control is divided among several leaders or groups

Etymology: "Polycracy" is built from two Greek elements: "poly", meaning "many", and "-cracy", from "kratos", meaning "power" or "rule", the same root found in "democracy" and "aristocracy." Read literally, it means rule by many, and that is how it has been used: power divided among several leaders or institutions rather than concentrated in one. The source also offers a second possible origin, a link to the name Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos in the sixth century BCE. Polycrates was famous for ruling his island with a handful of advisers and a web of alliances, so the name could plausibly have been bent into a label for multi-centred rule. Yet the compound "poly-" plus "-cracy" is the far more natural explanation, and the name link remains a suggestion rather than a demonstrated route into English.

Synonyms: multigovernance