aristodemocracy means A form of government in which power is shared between the people and the aristocracy. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
Why this word is great
ARISTODEMOCRACY — [Noun] A political system where sovereignty is formally apportioned between a hereditary elite and the general populace. From the Greek aristo- ("best, noble") and -democracy (from Greek dēmos, "people," and kratos, "rule, strength"). Unlike aristocracy, which enshrines the exclusive hegemony of a privileged class, or democracy, which asserts the absolute sovereignty of the whole people, aristodemocracy is the architecture of a negotiated stalemate. It is the Roman Senate uneasily checking the People's Assemblies; it is the heavy oak table where a merchant's petition is heard beside a lord's decree; it is the legal code that simultaneously guarantees a commoner's right to appeal and a noble's right to a trial by his peers. A perpetually unstable alloy, built not on idealistic purity, but on the pragmatic, grinding friction between two competing claims to legitimacy.
noun
- A form of government in which power is shared between the people and the aristocracy.“Ordained as a priest in 1931, then as a bishop in 1940, this long-time supporter of an 'aristodemocracy' limited to Java also ended up embracing the idea of a parliamentary Republic encompassing the entire Dutch East Indies.”