ungovernability
Beyond all control
Ungovernability is the quality or state of being impossible or extremely difficult to govern, control, or manage.
It typically describes political situations where authority has broken down—regions plagued by civil unrest, populations that resist state control, or institutions too fragmented to function coherently.
The country's ungovernability stems from decades of corruption and ethnic conflict.
The term can also apply to individuals, especially children, whose behavior defies all attempts at discipline.
Defiance of established power
- resistanceCapacity to withstand force
- insubordinationDefying workplace authority
- mutinyRevolt against authority
- revoltOrganized resistance to power
insurrection · disobedience · noncompliance · sedition · insurgency · dissent · subversion · recalcitrance
Absence of organization
- turmoilViolent disturbance or confusion
- pandemoniumState of utter confusion
- bedlamState of wild disorder
- mayhemViolent disorder and destruction
anarchy · lawlessness · upheaval · tumult · disarray · entropy · confusion · instability
Impossible to restrain
- unmanageabilityResistance to control
- wildnessUntamed, uncontrolled state
- incorrigibilityInability to be reformed
- obstinacyUnyielding adherence to position
recalcitrance · unruliness · contumacy · perversity · refractoriness · irrepressibility
Governance without outside control
- sovereigntySupreme independent authority
- independenceFreedom from external control
- self-determinationControl over one's fate
- decentralizationDistributing power from center
statelessness · separatism · secession · libertarianism · anarchism · freethinking · individualism · nonconformity
rebellion
Defiance of established power
- resistanceCapacity to withstand force
- insubordinationDefying workplace authority
- mutinyRevolt against authority
revolt · insurrection · disobedience · noncompliance · sedition · insurgency · dissent · subversion · recalcitrance · obstinacy
disorder
Absence of organization
- turmoilViolent disturbance or confusion
- pandemoniumState of utter confusion
- bedlamState of wild disorder
mayhem · anarchy · lawlessness · upheaval · tumult · disarray · entropy · confusion · instability · volatility
uncontrollability
Impossible to restrain
- unmanageabilityResistance to control
- wildnessUntamed, uncontrolled state
- incorrigibilityInability to be reformed
obstinacy · recalcitrance · unruliness · contumacy · perversity · refractoriness · irrepressibility
self-rule
Governance without outside control
- sovereigntySupreme independent authority
- independenceFreedom from external control
- self-determinationControl over one's fate
decentralization · statelessness · separatism · secession · libertarianism · anarchism · freethinking · individualism · nonconformity · antiauthoritarianism
- status offensestruancy, curfew violation, underage drinking, incorrigibility, breaking curfew
ungovernabilitygovernability
Ability to be ruled
manageability · controllability · tractability · handleability · tamability
ungovernabilityorder
Methodical arrangement or request
stability · lawfulness · orderliness · rule of law · civil order
ungovernabilitydocility
Readiness to submit
tractability · obedience · compliance · submissiveness · tractableness
govern, governs, governed, governing, governor, governors, governorship, governance, government