Contocracy: A Proposed Form of Government Based on Continuation

This working paper introduces contocracy (from cont(inuation) + -ocracy), a proposed form of government in which supreme authority is vested permanently in one person, survives that person's death, and never passes to a successor. Authority is exercised in three stages: by the person during their natural life; after death or permanent incapacity, by a single reconstruction of the person that is never presumed to be them and cannot change the religion or mission they professed; and, if the person's own continuation is ever established, by the person again. The paper defines the term and its word family (contocrat, contocratic, contocratize), sets out the constraints on the reconstruction, describes how the office remains continuous, compares contocracy with monarchy, dictatorship, theocracy and necrocracy, and summarizes the main objections.