mandarinate

Etymology

From French mandarinat, corresponding to mandarin + -ate (forms nouns denoting rank or office, a body of people performing it, the concrete charge of it).

mandarinate means the status of holding a position as a mandarin. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

Why “mandarinate” is a great word

MANDARINATE — [Noun] The collective body of high-ranking officials or bureaucrats, especially those with a scholarly background, who hold significant administrative power. From the French mandarinat, itself from mandarin (a high-ranking official, originally from Portuguese mandarim, from Malay menteri, from Sanskrit mantrin, meaning "counselor") + the suffix -ate (denoting rank, office, or a body of people). First recorded in English use in the early 18th century. Unlike "aristocracy" (which implies rule by hereditary right) or "bureaucracy" (which describes the entire administrative machinery), a mandarinate is the ossified, intellectual apex of that machinery—a priesthood of policy. It is the rustle of silk robes in a vaulted examination hall, the precise brushstroke of an edict on imperial paper, and the glacial, procedural consensus that outlasts emperors; a system designed to perfect order, until it becomes its own cathedral.

noun

The status of holding a position as a mandarin.
The collective body of mandarins.“As higher education, claiming more and more years of one’s life, widens the space between those who possess it and those who do not, and as the enlightenment of the public wanes relatively to the superior enlightenment of the learned castes and professions, the mandarinate will infallibly draw to itself a greater and greater share of social power.”
A political form of rule by mandarins.
A type of government marked by excessive bureaucracy and Byzantine regulations.“Far from being a model of democracy, the EU is associated with an arrogant, out-of-touch mandarinate that issues rules and edicts with paternalistic and highhanded disregard for ordinary citizens.”