Laocracy (Greek: λαοκρατία) is a political term meaning "rule of the people". It has been used by the Greek labo
movement
since its inception, instead of the term

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

. For Greek Communists the Greek word democracy (δημοκρατία), meaning the rule of the ''

demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * Plural for Demo (computer programming ...

'', refers to the ancient rule of the ruling social class of free citizens, forming the demos, in the Athenian Republic of the

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world throughout history, including cities such as Rome, ...

which represented a minority while the slaves were the majority of the population. In this sense, democracy is considered by the Greek Communists to refer to the rule of the minority, through representative

parliamentary democracy A parliamentary system, or parliamentary democracy, is a form of government where the head of government (chief executive) derives their democratic legitimacy from their ability to command the support ("confidence") of a majority of the legisl ...

, while laocracy would be

direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate directly decides on policy initiatives, without legislator, elected representatives as proxies, as opposed to the representative democracy m ...

, exercised by the people themselves. Greek historian

Dimitri Kitsikis Dimitri Kitsikis (; 2 June 1935 – 28 August 2021) was a Greek philosopher, Turkologist and Sinologist, as well as a professor of international relations and geopolitics. He also published poetry in French and Greek. Life Kitsikis was a Tur ...

has systematically used the term laocracy in all his writings Russian political philosopher Alexandr Dugin has used the term laocracy saying that "the state should become an instrument of the People. This system should be called as such laocracy".

References

{{Poli-term-stub Political terminology Politics of Greece Left-wing populism Types of democracy