Democrazy (democracy + crazy)

“Democrazy” (democracy + crazy) is a term to describe a democracy gone crazy, perhaps by corrupt politics and elections. “Democrazy” has been cited in print since at least 1853 and has been frequently used in African countries, especially Nigeria.

A similar term is “bureaucrazy” (bureaucracy + crazy).

Urban Dictionary
democrazy
what United States Of America actually is
USA is a democrazy not a democracy
by brainwash Sep 4, 2004

20 April 1853, The Citizen (Jackson, MI), pg. 3, col. 4:
The Democratic? State of Missouri, has a State Bank, nearly upon the plan of the old U. S. Bank. Demo-crazy that!

6 Juy 1935, Seattle (WA) Daily Times, pg. 6, col. 5:
I might add, in passing, that I have never heard a voter called democrazy, nor a religious person called theocrazy. I hope I never shall.
(Letter from Charles A. Knight—ed.)

19 August 1959, Springfield (MA) Union, Amusements, pg. 17, col. 2:
His pal replied, “The republic has changed to a democrazy.”
(Letter from J. F. Ferrier, Springfield—ed.)

OCLC WorldCat
“Democrazy: Dem Go Craze, O”: Monitoring the 1999 Nigerian Elections
Author: Darren Kew
Edition/Format: Article : English
Publication: Issue: A Journal of Opinion, 1999, vol. 27, no. 1, p. 29-33
Database: JSTOR

OCLC WorldCat record
Democracy or `democrazy’?
Publisher: [London, Afrimedia International, etc.]
Edition/Format: Article : English
Publication: West Africa. no. 4248, (October 16, 2000): 9-12
Database: ArticleFirst

Google Books
Reconstructing the Third Wave of Democracy:
Comparative African democratic politics
By Rita Kiki Edozie
Lanham, MD: University Press Of America
2009
Pg. 168:
It is this set of events that effectively captured the Nigerian electorate’s sentiments in the comments of popular, Nigerian Afro-beat artist, Femi Kuti’s on the eve of elections, “The President says to his VP—you are a thief; his VP replies you are too. This is not Democracy but ‘Demo-crazy’” (BBC, April 2007).

OCLC WorldCat record
Democracy or democrazy? Local experiences of democratization in Timor-Leste
Author: Deborah Cummins
Edition/Format: Article : English
Publication: Democratization, v17 n5 (201010): 899-919
Database: CrossRef
Other Databases: British Library Serials; Elsevier

Google Books
The New Scramble for Africa
By Pádraig Risteard Carmody
Malden MA: Polity Press
2011
Pg. 179:
The noted Oxford development economist Paul Collier also calls democracy promotion in very low-income countries ‘democrazy’ (Collier 2009).

Google Books
Global Anti-Terrorism Law and Policy>o?
Edited by Victor V. Ramraj, Michael Hor, Kent Roach and George Williams
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2012
Pg. 304:
Anti-terrorism measures in Indonesia have also had to contend with the euphoria of a new-found democracy, where even justifiable and necessary restrictions to civil liberties are viewed with apprehension. This has led some to coin the word ‘democrazy’ to describe this situation.