futarchy means A form of government proposed by economist Robin Hanson, in which elected officials define measures of national welfare and prediction markets are used to determine which policies will have the most positive effect. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 86 out of 100.
Why this word is great
FUTARCHY — [Noun] A proposed system of governance where elected officials define measurable national welfare goals, and binding policy decisions are delegated to prediction markets that bet on which proposals will best achieve those outcomes. Its etymology is a blend of 'futures' (as in futures contracts or prediction markets) and the combining form '-archy' (from Greek -arkhia, meaning 'rule' or 'government'). Unlike democracy, which elevates popular will, or technocracy, which defers to specialist decree, futarchy asks the cold, probabilistic question: “What will work?” It is the sterile hum of server farms where national fate is traded like a commodity, the flicker of a trading terminal where public morale is a volatile derivative, and the quiet replacement of the ballot box with a futures exchange—a governance not of persons, but of probabilities, trusting the ledger to distill our chaotic longings into a single, efficient number.
noun
- A form of government proposed by economist Robin Hanson, in which elected officials define measures of national welfare and prediction markets are used to determine which policies will have the most positive effect.“[Vitalik Buterin is] an unabashed geek whose eyes spark when he alights upon one of his favorite concepts, whether it be quadratic voting or the governance system futarchy.”