TIMOCRACY

Form: Gr. timokratia, government according to property-tax or valuation of property.

The name given among the Greeks to that form of government in which, while the citizens were equal in other respects, their share in the government was regulated by a certain gradation corresponding to the amount of their property. Thus those whose property entailed the greater expenditure in public services possessed proportionately greater privileges. The Solonian constitution (q.v.) was founded on this principle.