Logocracy is the rule of, or government by, words. It is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

λόγος ''Logos'' (, ; grc, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive reasoning. Arist ...

(

logos ''Logos'' (, ; grc, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive reasoning. Arist ...

)—"word" and from κράτος (kratos)—to "govern". The term can be used either positively, ironically, or negatively.

Historical examples

The

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

is described as a logocracy in

Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories " Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legen ...

's 1807 work ''

Salmagundi Salmagundi (or salmagundy or sallid magundi) is a cold dish or salad made from different ingredients which may include meat, seafood, eggs, cooked vegetables, raw vegetables, fruits or pickles. In English culture, the term does not refer to a s ...

''. A visiting foreigner, "Mustapha Rub-a-dub Keli Khan", describes it as such, by which he means that via the tricky use of words, one can have power over others. Those most adept at this are termed "slang-whangers", while

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

is a "blustering, windy assembly". Mustapha describes how:

"unknown to these people themselves, their government is a pure unadulterated LOGOCRACY or ''government of words''. The whole nation does every thing ''
viva voce ''Viva voce'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "with living voice" but most often translated as "by word of mouth." It may refer to: *Word of mouth *A voice vote in a deliberative assembly *An oral exam **Thesis defence, in academia *Spoken evi ...
'', or, by word of mouth, and in this manner is one of the most military nations in existence ..In a logocracy thou well knowest there is little or no occasion for fire arms, or any such destructive weapons. Every offensive or defensive measure is enforced by ''wordy battle'', and ''paper war''; he who has the longest tongue or readiest
quill A quill is a writing tool made from a moulted flight feather (preferably a primary wing-feather) of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, the metal-Nib (pen), nibbed pen, the fountain pen, and, ...
, is sure to gain the victory—will carry horror, abuse, and ''ink shed'' into the very trenches of the enemy, and without mercy or remorse, put men, women, and children to the point of the—pen!"

The

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

was described by

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winner Czesław Miłosz as a logocracy. It was for example, according to Christine D. Tomei, a "pseudo-reality created by mere words". Moreover, after the revolution Luciano Pellicani describes how a "language reform plan" was introduced by Kisselev. In it he "stressed that the old mentality would never be overthrown, if the structure of the Russian language was not also transformed and purged." This process led to a Soviet language that

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitari ...

would later dub "neo-language", and was a precursor to his ''

Nineteen Eighty-Four ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final ...

Newspeak Newspeak is the fictional language of Oceania, a totalitarian superstate that is the setting of the 1949 dystopian novel '' Nineteen Eighty-Four'', by George Orwell. In the novel, the Party created Newspeak to meet the ideological requirements ...

.Luciano Pellicani, ''Revolutionary Apocalypse: Ideological Roots of Terrorism'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003, pp.234-235
/ref> The new Soviet 'language' was less a real language than an 'orthogloxy', a "stereotyped jargon consisting of formulas and empty

slogans A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan, political slogan, political, Advertising slogan, commercial, religious, and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the publi ...

, whose purpose was to prevent people from thinking outside the boundaries of collective thought"—i.e. it was speech which destroyed

individuality An individual is that which exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of being an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) of being a person unique from other people and possessing one's own need ...

. Janina Frentzel-Zagórska, however, queries the importance of political language in the USSR, saying that "the old ideological 'Newspeak' had completely disappeared in the Soviet Union long before" the fall of Communism.

Totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regul ...

, according to political theorist

Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century. Arendt was born ...

, can be considered a logocracy, since in it

idea In common usage and in philosophy, ideas are the results of thought. Also in philosophy, ideas can also be mental representational images of some object. Many philosophers have considered ideas to be a fundamental ontological category of being. ...

s are no longer important, just how they are expressed. Academic Yahya Michot has referred to

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagree ...

as a "popular" or "laic logocracy", in that it is government by the word of the

Koran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing ...

.Quoted in: Paul Culp, ''Nothing New Under the Sun: An Introduction to Islam'', 2007, p. 43
/ref>

References

{{Reflist Forms of government

Historical examples

See also

References