mob rule
Majority by intimidation
Mob rule is governance by crowd sentiment rather than law or established authority.
The term is always pejorative, suggesting that an unruly mass has seized control from legitimate institutions: Without police protection, the city descended into mob rule.
The phrase implies violence, irrationality, and the tyranny of whoever shouts loudest.
- reign of terrorPeriod of violent oppression
- anarchyDisorder from absent authority
- lawlessnessAbsence of governing rules
- insurrectionViolent uprising against authority
- rebellionDefiance of established power
mass hysteria · collective behavior · Ku Klux Klan · vigilante justice · crowd psychology · sans-culottes · peasant revolt · popular uprising · kangaroo court · turmoil · lynching · public executions · vigilantism · blood in the streets · French Revolution · herd mentality · Salem witch trials · frontier justice
- rule typesdemocracy, autocracy, oligarchy, theocracy, aristocracy
- governancegovernance, government, democracy, vote, parliament
- civil unrestriot, riots, rioting, uprising, revolt
- lawlessnessanarchy, chaos, disorder, lawbreaking, crime
- political turmoilpolitical instability, power vacuum, coup d'etat, military coup, uprising
- unrestriot, uprising, riots, revolt, civil unrest
mob rulerule of law
Supremacy of established laws
constitutional government · constitutional democracy · representative democracy · republicanism · liberal democracy
mob ruleminority rights
Safeguards for underrepresented populations
individual rights · civil liberties · constitutional protections · judicial review · checks and balances