Dictionary

panarchy en · NOUN

Etymology

From pan- + -archy. Coined independently in many different contexts.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The individual's right to choose any form of government without being forced to move from their current locale.
   • 1860 article by “Panarchy” de Puydt
2. (countable, uncountable) Dynamic symmetry across multiple scales.
   • In panarchies, transformational change can be generated from below or from above. 2001, Lance H. Gunderson, C. S. Holling, Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems, →ISBN, page 25:
3. (countable, uncountable) An inclusive, multilateral system in which all parties may participate meaningfully.
   • The overlapping governance networks of panarchy have facilitated a context conducive to the above competing multilateralisms. 2006, W.A. Knight, “Plurilateral Multilateralism: Canada's Emerging International Policy?”, in Andrew F. Cooper, Dane Rowlands, editors, Canada Among Nations, →ISBN, page 100:
4. (countable, rare, uncountable) Rule by all; a system of governance in which each person has absolute power.
   • If everyone all at once wanted to know who won the Stanley Cup in 1968 they could have the information simultaneously; cyberspace as the site of Unamuno's panarchy, where each one is king. 2001, David Trend, Reading Digital Culture, →ISBN, page 148:
5. (countable, rare, uncountable) Rule of all; absolute or total rule.
   • These contentions give rise to systems of political philosophy which range all the way from anarchy to panarchy; from the doctrine that government should do nothing to the doctrine that it should do everything. 1909, Samuel Eagle Forman, A Good Word for Democracy, page 91:
6. (countable, poetic, rare, uncountable) An all-encompassing realm.
   • Some held that God, and all the heavenly powers, / As with the starry panarchy of space, / Were of one essence, like divine and high; 1839, Philip James Bailey, Festus: A Poem, published 1860, page 369:

Forms

Relateds

panarch · panarchism · panarchic