contractocracy

English

Etymology

From contract +‎ -ocracy.

Noun

contractocracy (plural contractocracies)

1. (usually pejorative) The routine use of contractors to perform the functions of government rather than regular government employees, often with the implication that the contractors are ineffective and simply enriching themselves due to government corruption.
   • 1986, Peter R. Lawrence, World Recession and the Food Crisis in Africa, →ISBN, page 43:

     There are several dissimilarities, however, between classical Underdevelopment Theory and some of the leading theoreticians of the contractocracy school in Nigeria.

   • 1992, Thomas A. Imobighe, The politics of the Second Republic, page 150:

     The contract syndrome became so prevalent that the then Governor of Kaduna State, Balarabe Musa, felt compelled to characterise the Nigerian polity in terms of a "contractocracy" : "Instead of a democracy -in which you have in operation government for the people, you have a contractocracy in which government is for contractors, by contractors and of contractors."

   • 1997, Rufa'i Ahmed Alkali, The World Bank and Nigeria, page 10:

     Yusuf Bangura argues that the contractocracy thesis merely falls within what he called "third option" explanation.