English edit

Etymology edit

mandarin +‎ -ism

Noun edit

mandarinism (countable and uncountable, plural mandarinisms)

  1. A government of mandarins; character or spirit of the mandarins.
    • 1853, Francis Lieber, On Civil Liberty and Self-government:
      It seems to me that it is these very governments of centralized mandarinism that play at providence, in which they closely resemble the communists, as indeed all absolutism contains a strong element of communism.