Kakistocracy

The word kakistocracy popped up in Johnson, the Economist's language blog. Normally I don't include words unless I have to look them up for some reason other than idle curiosity or seeing them on a word of the day site or the like. In the specific case of word of the day sites, it would feel a little like plagiarism to every day post the word I'd «looked up» by seeing it as the word of the day.

But Kakistocracy is such a gem that I had to lift it. Granted that the term itself is a redundancy, it elegantly describes the natural combined result of the Peter principle and the Dilbert principle, and probably a few others as well. When the word entered my consciousness, I had a moment of disbelief. Does that really mean what it sounds like it means? To my delight, it really does.