Kleptocracy
Etymology
A modern compound from Greek kléptēs ("thief," from kléptein, "to steal") and -kratía ("rule"). So it means, quite literally, "rule by thieves." The word is a twentieth-century coinage, built to describe leaders who treat the treasury as a personal account.
noun · /klep-TOK-ruh-see/
A government whose rulers use their power chiefly to steal the wealth of the state and its people.
What it names
It reframes certain regimes not as failed states but as successful ones — machines working exactly as intended, to enrich those at the top.
Example
Foreign bank records turned the anti-corruption case into a portrait of a full-blown kleptocracy.
Related idea
Graft is the individual act of skimming from public office; kleptocracy is what results when graft becomes the entire operating logic of the state.