cooptation

or co-op·ta·tion

[ koh-op-tey-shuhn ]

noun

1. the act or process of being elected or selected into a body by the existing members:

   Investigators and judges are selected via cooptation, not recruited through a public selection procedure.

2. the act or process of being assimilated or taken over by a larger or more established group:

   The revolutionaries declined to make specific demands as a defense against cooptation by established political parties or the labor unions.

3. the act or process of taking possession or making use of something without permission:

   At the heart of punk ideology lies a harsh condemnation of modern society combined with a self-conscious sense of irony about the commercial cooptation of the message of this supposedly antisocial music.

4. the act or process of being bribed or manipulated into changing sides:

   In order to prevent cooptation of their delegates, the organization changed representatives every few months.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cooptation¹

First recorded in 1530–40; coopt ( def ) + -ation ( def )

Example Sentences

How are we to receive this gargantuan epic of occupation and racial cooptation?

From Los Angeles Times

The aim of authoritarian parties is control or cooptation of law enforcement and the military, which are often seen as the last line of defense of democracy.

From Salon

This is the gradual erosion of democracy, not by coup but by cooptation.

From Washington Post

The replacement of competent individuals with sycophants, and the cooptation of institutions, is part of what we warned would happen in "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump," following our conference at Yale in April 2017.

From Salon

How does a proposal of a revival of counterculture square with the cooptation of 1960s counterculture by capitalism?

From Salon