statism

From stat(e) +‎ -ism. Doublet of etatism. First attested in c. 1600.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsteɪdɪzm/, /ˈsteɪdɪzəm/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsteɪtɪzm/, /ˈsteɪtɪzəm/

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statism (uncountable)

1. (obsolete, derogatory) Synonym of secularism: subservience of religious issues to political officials and expediency.
   • 1609, William Barlow, An Answer to a Catholike English-man, page 370:

     Religion turned into Statisme, will soone prooue Atheisme.

2. (obsolete) Synonym of statecraft or statesmanship.
   • 1608, J. F. Le Petit, translated by Edward Grimeston, General History of the Netherlands, page 1113:

     My great Cousin hauing euermore
     From my greene yeares accepted my aduise
     In points of statisme...

3. (archaic) Synonym of government or governance.
   • 1839, John Hobart Caunter, Poetry of the Pentateuch, page 189:

     have formed the basis of every system of statism adopted by the civilized communities of the earth.

4. (political philosophy, often derogatory)
   1. The belief that most or all political power should be centralized in national governments.

      Synonyms: etatism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism

      Hypernym: paternalism

      Coordinate term: statolatry

      Near-synonyms: big government, dirigisme

      • 1890, W.D.P. Bliss, What is Christian Socialism?, page 21:

        Bismarck... believes in State insurance in State activities, in place of individual action. But this is not Socialism. It is Statism.

      • 1940 November 5, The Sun, Baltimore, p. 5:

        Republican Senator Charles L. McNary concluded his Vice-Presidential campaign tonight with the charge the New Deal is ‘taking deeper and deeper refuge in paternalism and statism’.

      • 1971 January 10, Stan Lehr, Louis Rossetto, “The New Right Credo–Libertarianism”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

        As the economic derivative of libertarianism, laissez-faire capitalism is an economics of life, of rationality. And, like libertarianism, it is the only viable solution to the catastrophe of statism in the modern age.

      • 1996, Louis Rossetto, “19th Century Nostrums are not Solutions to 21st Century Problems”, in Mute, volume 1, number 4, →ISSN:

        ; social welfare policies reward parasitical living rather than risk-taking; a truly atavistic, sick attachment to the compulsion and non-meritocratic elitism of statism as a way of life; have all retarded and will continue to retard Europeans.

   2. The belief that most or nearly all political power should be decentralized to provincial governments.

      Synonyms: regionalism, federalism, provincialism

      • 1854 July 1, The Times, London, p. 9:

        The joint note of Austria and Prussia... appears thus to have worked more good than moderation and good sense generally achieve over faction and petty-Statism.

      • 1875, A.H. Bullock, Intellectual Leadership Illustrated in American History, page 37:

        To him... we owe that sentiment of nationalism prevailing over statism... without which the Union would have parted.

   3. (chiefly libertarianism and anarchism) The belief that the state is a legitimate societal organization.

      Antonym: anarchism

• (belief in strong central government): authoritarianism, totalitarianism, fascism

• “statism, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022.

Borrowed from French statisme.

statism n (uncountable)

1. stasis (state of motionlessness)