Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by adsteel_ 595 days ago
None of those are examples of ochlocracy, even if they involve mobs. Mob rule is an "oppressive majoritarian form of government". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mob_rule
1 comments

Elsewhere on that same page, "Ochlocracy is synonymous in meaning and usage to mob rule or mobocracy", which links to a different definition:

"mobocracy: Rule or control by the mob (or by the mass of ordinary people); a mob as a politically powerful force."

Those movements were certainly mobs as politically powerful forces. Had they succeeded, they would have been examples of control by the mob.

Then there's the history section of the page you linked, where we hear about lynchings and riots as examples of ochlocracy.

So why do you think those movements/riots don't qualify?