Agnocracy: Rule by Ignorance

Around the world today, there is a building wave of calculated and relentless untruth and non-knowledge, which has become a common governing principle. This article coins the term agnocracy (rule by ignorance) for this phenomenon, urging attention to it as a distinct form of governance. It offers a qualitative and conceptual analysis of agnocracy, based on historical and contemporary evidence, taking inspiration from the field of agnotology or the construction and manipulation of non-knowledge. Based on this approach and the available evidence, it identifies the recurring tactics of contemporary agnocracy, before illustrating the point with examples from contemporary Russia, China, India, Hungary, and the United States. Finally, it points the way toward the study of agnocracy by considering the present-day epistemological, cultural, and practical factors that make non-knowledge attractive and effective.