rotativistadj.n.

1907 Times 20 Nov. 7/4 Misleading statements and insinuations by the ‘rotativist’ and Republican parties.

1917 G. Young Portugal vi. 217 The collapse of the Portuguese colonial empire must come with the continuance of the struggle between rotativist Royalism and revolutionary Republicanism.

1929 Cambr. Anc. Hist. (ed. 2) III. 253 A regular ‘rotativist’ arrangement made by the son of Smendes with the Thebans by which he was to be succeeded by the Theban high-priest..and he again by a Tanite.

1950 Times 13 Sept. 6/4 Two months later he renounced the leadership of the party and was henceforth doomed as a ‘Rotativist’ instrument of government.

2000 A. C. Pinto in D. Berg-Schlosser & J. Mitchell Conditions of Democracy in Europe, 1919–39 xv. 360 The two rotativist parties were for all intents and purposes indistinguishable.

1939 A. Toynbee Study of Hist. VI. 173 Stoic and Epicurean philosophers who apparently were not put out by the incongruity between their rotativist conception of the nature of Reality and their ethical aim of Detachment.

1907 Times 23 Dec. 3/6 A rumoured resolution by the bloc leaders that the ‘Rotativists’ will take no part in the elections unless liberty of the Press is previously granted.

1908 Public 8 May 133/2 The Progressives and the Regenerators..maintained..an attitude toward each other that earned for them in combination the name of ‘Rotativists’, for they were to all intents and purposes one party, with alternate sections in power.

1926 Glasgow Herald 24 Dec. 4/7 They recalled the indifference of the electorate on the frequent occasions of general elections by order of the Rotativists.

1992 B. Goodwin Justice by Lottery vi. 130 The concern of the rotativists clearly differs from that of rotationists and has nothing to do with the just distribution of power among all citizens.