timocracy

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   in Plato's political theory, a form of government ruled by people motivated chiefly by honor and military glory

   In Plato's sequence of declining constitutions, timocracy stands between aristocracy and oligarchy.

2. 2
   noun

   a system in which political rights or offices depend on property ownership or assessed wealth

   Under the timocracy, only citizens above the property threshold could hold high office.

Via French tymocracie and Medieval Latin timocratia from Greek timokratía, combining timḗ ("honor, valuation, assessed property") + -kratía ("rule"). The two senses reflect timḗ: Plato's honor-driven state and the property-qualified constitution described in later political theory.

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