kakistocracy

Etymology

Formed from Ancient Greek κάκιστος (kákistos, "worst"), the superlative of κακός (kakós, "bad"), combined with -κρατία (-kratía, "power, rule, government"), which corresponds to -cracy. The English author Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866) used the word, perhaps re-coining it, in his 1829 novella The Misfortunes of Elphin, as the opposite of aristocracy (see second quotation).