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"Ineptocracy" as can be googled today is a certain criticism of democracy. One book (titled Far-Right Fantasy: A Sociology of American Religion and Politics) seems to say that Ayn Rand used the term:

an anecdotal defamation of moochers and takers, the citizenry of what Ayn Rand calls the "ineptocracy".

But I can't find the details and most other users/mentions of the term today don't trace the term back to her. So did Rand use this "ineptocracy" term? (I'm aware she did criticize democracy in roughly those terms.)

Google ngram can't tell me anything about "ineptocracy", which usually means the term is seldom used.

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  • Probably if it isn't on this list then it's not a real thing.
    – Daniel R Hicks
    Apr 2, 2019 at 17:02
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    I think I've read everything Rand has published (yes, I'm that guy), and don't recall ever seeing the term. That word doesn't sound consistent with her style.
    – Ask About Monica
    Apr 2, 2019 at 17:53

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This is almost certainly a mis-attribution. Here is the oldest occurrence I could find on the web, a list of quotations from 1999, where it is attributed to an anonymous source. The oldest publication I could find on Google Books was this from 2011, proceedings of a Parliamentary committee where a Paul Flynn said, "I wonder if you will look back at your five years in power and say, 'We created an ineptocracy.'" If Ayn Rand actually ever used this word, I would expect it to appear in published sources older than this.

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  • Are Ayn Rand's works in Google Books?
    – DJClayworth
    Apr 3, 2019 at 13:21
  • @DJClayworth Yes.
    – Brian Z
    Apr 3, 2019 at 14:59

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