-acy, -cy

Sufficient for a specific requirement: reasonableness; passableness: Amanda's teacher, Mrs. Smith, questioned the adequacy of her homework because it seemed to be only partly finished.

1. An active verbal support for a cause or political position, etc.: At the political convention, there was a lot of advocacy, or backing up, for the experienced and wise candidate for the office of U.S. President.
2. The act of speaking or writing, in support of something, such as an idea, a cause, or a policy, and giving active support: Jane’s advocacy for the local animal rights group helped convince the public to donate more money for saving the lives of stray animals.

A government which is dominated or controlled by white men: In his history class at school, Ted learned that there were many albocracies, especially ones that were led and ruled by Europeans.

The political and social control and rule by males; masculine supremacy: Many countries in the world can be considered to be androcracies because the leaders are always men and never women. © ALL rights are reserved.

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A government controlled by the wind or by political decisions instead of serious research and practical applications: The miserable state of an anemocracy is when people who put their trust in irrational procedures are merely governed by the "windy" impractical arguments of politicians.

A government run by angels: Janet was surprised to learn that an angelocracy was one ruled by individuals providing venture capital.

The rule or paramount influence of money: In the story Mary was reading, there was a regime which was governed by an argentoracy which was not interested in supporting or caring for its people but only in its financial gain.

1. The nobility: The aristocracy is made up of lords, dukes, princes, princesses, kings and queens.
2. The government of a state by its “best” citizens: An aristocracy is that form of government in which the chief power lies in the hands of those who are most distinguished by birth or fortune or a political supremacy of a privileged order.
3. The class to which such a ruling body belongs, a patrician order: An aristocracy is the collective body of those, as the nobles, who form a privileged class with regard to the government of their country.

Aristocracy is popularly extended to include all of those who, by birth or fortune, occupy a position distinctly above the rest of the people and it is also used figuratively regarding those who are superior in other respects.

A form of government in which power results from the group that holds the numerical majority in a country: An arithmocracy can be a good form of government, or it can have negative results depending on whether there is a balance between governmental rule and individual liberty.

If someone with arithmocracy wants to do away with criticism of the government with the hope of assuring national harmony, it would not get by with passing a law forbidding the media or private citizens from openly challenging any political decisions!

A form of government in which a country is ruled by one person, or group, with total power or unrestricted control over all of the other citizens: An autocracy involves a system in which someone makes decisions which are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regularized mechanisms of popular control.

A government or rule by barbarians: Barbarocracy can be exemplified by that of Italy in the past or by the German emperors.

1. Biological theft: Biopiracy is the illegal collection of indigenous plants, microbes, enzymes, etc. by corporations that patent them for their own commercial use.
2. The commercial development of naturally occurring biological materials, such as plant substances or genetic cell lines, by a technologically advanced country, or an organization without fair compensation to the peoples or nations in whose territory the materials were originally discovered.

Biopiracy includes the patenting of plants, genes, and other biological products that are indigenous to a foreign country. For example, some developing tropical nations are saying that if the West cries foul over piracy of intellectual property or computer software, then biopiracy in Western labs of jungle extracts should also be considered a high economic crime.

Biopiracy usually refers to the privatization and unauthorized use of biological resources by entities (including corporations, universities, and governments) outside of a country that have pre-existing knowledge. This privatization and use is sometimes claimed to be predatory. Particular activities usually covered by the term are exclusive commercial rights to plants, animals, organs, microorganisms, and genes, as well as commercialization of traditional communities' knowledge on biological resources; and patenting of biological resources.

Here is a biopiracy article that presents an example of this topic.

1. Administration of a government chiefly through departments which are staffed with non-elected officials: The entrenched bureaucracies in the government have caused many delays in processing important payments to those who are entitled to tax refunds.
2. The management or administration which is marked by hierarchical authority among numerous offices and by fixed procedures: Some government offices are accused of being a rigid bureaucracy and thus impeding or slowing down actions because of their overly strict adherence to rules or regulations.

To satisfy the government bureaucracy, James and Jane had to fill out several different forms and then they had to wait for some weeks before they obtained the payment that they had coming to them.

3. An administrative system in which the need or inclination to follow rigid or complex procedures interferes with efficient and effective actions: Innovative or new ideas too often get bogged down in red tape in a bureaucracy.

Too often bureaucracies insist on going through rigid routines, resulting in delays in making decisions or in carrying out requests. This is also known as "red tape" which comes from the former use of red or pink tape to tie up or to seal official documents for security reasons.

Too often a bureaucracy is where more is said than is actually done.

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Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.

A new government that makes laws, rules, regulations, collects taxes, and prints money: There often are newly organized legislatures or cenocracies which are created by citizens in many countries.

A government or country that is ruled with "strong hands" or by physical force: There are some people who maintain that certain countries have always been cheirocracies or chirocracies.

Some people maintain that China has always been a chirocracy, and if this is true, there are also many other countries that fit this description.

Examples of additional nations that practice cheirocracy include North Korea, some Arabic countries, and even former President Trump of the U.S.A. who restricted immigrants coming in from Mexico with military forces.