statist

noun

stat·​ist ˈstā-tist 

plural statists

: someone who believes that economic controls and planning should be concentrated in the hands of a highly centralized government : an advocate of statism

[U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron] White's cynicism about the distinction between law and politics transformed him into the Court's most persistent statist. A former clerk for another justice summed up White's philosophy as "… If Congress passed this law, why is it my business to get in the way?"

—Jeffrey Rosen

statist adjective

… statist environmentalism, a position favoring a strong state role in environmental governance …

—Christian Brannstrom

Examples of statist in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The media has been completely transformed into a very compliant, statist industry. —Literary Hub, 15 May 2025

Further outrage against the inflexible statist ideology of the world anti-doping bureaucracy is useless. —Sally Jenkins, Washington Post, 13 July 2024

Despite these important differences, Chinese and Russian elites do share a conservative, statist worldview. —Joseph Torigian, Foreign Affairs, 24 June 2024

These villages run the gamut from statist to localist. —Robert Brooks, National Review, 28 July 2021

According to those hard-braking statists, the average American driver slows on the brakes 19 times for every 1,000 miles driven. —oregonlive.com, 25 June 2019

Word History

First Known Use

1898, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing statist

• anti-statist

Rhymes for statist

• greatest
• latest
• straightest