power politics

noun

plural in form but singular or plural in construction

: politics based primarily on the use of power (such as military and economic strength) as a coercive force rather than on ethical precepts

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

Political corruption and power politics are never far away in the contemporary Philippines, a reality that ABS-CBN has experienced firsthand. —Patrick Brzeski, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Mar. 2023

For much of the 20th century, Qatar was a barren Persian Gulf backwater better known for pearl diving than power politics. —Rory Smith, New York Times, 19 Nov. 2022

The former is to a great extent a prosaic matter of power politics. —Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 18 Mar. 2012

Yet the war’s indifferent power politics, industrial-scale killing, and fierce nationalist passions also seemed, as many analysts and others at the time observed, dramatic confirmation of Freud’s views. —Patrick Blanchfield, The New Republic, 1 Sep. 2022

This is just basic power politics: America is the only country that can possibly stand up to China. —Time, 11 Oct. 2022

In the end, Washington’s veto, like the imposition of economic sanctions, is best understood as power politics. —Steve Coll, The New Yorker, 14 Sep. 2022

No longer a government in exile, the crowd was full of former Obama and current Biden officials, a who’s who of Democratic power politics. —Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 7 Sep. 2022

Frenetic is maybe the best way to describe the HBO series, which returned for a second season this week, a series seemingly bent on taking young workplace power politics and boofing it with a mountain of cocaine. —Josh St. Clair, Men's Health, 2 Aug. 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

1901, in the meaning defined above