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oligarchy

 
Dictionary: ol·i·gar·chy   (ŏl'ĭ-gär'kē, ō'lĭ-) pronunciation
 
n., pl. -chies.
    1. Government by a few, especially by a small faction of persons or families.
    2. Those making up such a government.
  1. A state governed by a few persons.
oligarchic ol'i·gar'chic or ol'i·gar'chi·cal adj.
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Word Overheard: oligarchy
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New York Times columnist Paul Krugman takes issue with a statement by new Fed chief Ben Bernanke to the effect that rising financial inequality stems from insufficient educational opportunities. It's not all college graduates who are making more money, Krugman says, it's a small segment of society — an oligarchy:

"...we're seeing the rise of a narrow oligarchy: income and wealth are becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small, privileged elite."

Link: Graduates Versus Oligarchs

Posted February 28, 2006.

 
Political Dictionary: oligarchy
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Government by the few. The logically exclusive categories of government by one, the few, or the many have been widely deployed, but the terminology has varied. For example, aristocracy is a form of government by the few. Aristotle distinguished between rulers who govern in the general interest (aristocracy) and rulers who govern in their own interest (oligarchy). Sociologists have made claims about a necessary connection between organization and oligarchy. See also elitism; iron law of oligarchy.

— Andrew Reeve

 

Rule by the few, often seen as having self-serving ends. Aristotle used the term pejoratively for unjust rule by bad men, contrasting oligarchy with rule by an aristocracy. Most classic oligarchies have resulted when governing elites were recruited exclusively from a ruling class, which tends to exercise power in its own interest. The term is considered outmoded today because "few" conveys no information about the nature of the ruling group.

For more information on oligarchy, visit Britannica.com.

 

oligarchy (oligarchia, ‘rule of the few’), the limitation of political power to a portion of the community, such as a few families or individuals (the oligarchs). It was characteristic of oligarchs that they possessed greater wealth and influence than the rest of the community; high birth was not a necessary condition (compare ARISTOCRACY), but in Greece it commonly happened that the oligarchs were a section of the old nobility which had excluded from power the poorer nobles. Even during the second half of the fifth century BC, when Athenian ascendancy promoted democratic forms of government, there were still many oligarchic states in Greece, the most notable perhaps being at Corinth and at Thebes. The government at Rome under the republic is often described as ‘oligarchical’; see NOBILES and REPUBLIC.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: oligarchy
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oligarchy (ŏl'əgärkē) [Gr.,=rule by the few], rule by a few members of a community or group. When referring to governments, the classical definition of oligarchy, as given for example by Aristotle, is of government by a few, usually the rich, for their own advantage. It is compared with both aristocracy, which is defined as government by a few chosen for their virtue and ruling for the general good, and various forms of democracy, or rule by the people. In practice, however, almost all governments, whatever their form, are run by a small minority of members. From this perspective, the major distinction between oligarchy and democracy is that in the latter, the elites compete with each other, gaining power by winning public support. The extent and type of barriers impeding those who attempt to join this ruling group is also significant.


 
Politics: oligarchy
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(ol-uh-gahr-kee, oh-luh-gahr-kee)

A system of government in which power is held by a small group.

 
Word Tutor: oligarchy
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pronunciation

IN BRIEF: Government by a few.

pronunciation The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy. — Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755), French lawyer and political philosopher.

 
Wikipedia: Oligarchy
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An oligarchy (Greek Ὀλιγαρχία, Oligarkhía) is a form of government in which power effectively rests with a small elite segment of society distinguished by royal, wealth, intellectual, family, military or religious hegemony. The word oligarchy is from the Greek words for "few" (ὀλίγος olígos) and "rule" (ἀρχή arkhē). Such states are often controlled by politically powerful families whose children are heavily conditioned and mentored to be heirs of the power of the oligarchy.[citation needed] Oligarchies have been tyrannical throughout history, being completely reliant on public servitude to exist. Although Aristotle pioneered the use of the term as a synonym for rule by the rich, for which the exact term is plutocracy, oligarchy is not always a rule by wealth, as oligarchs can simply be a privileged group. Some city-states from Ancient Greece were oligarchies.

Contents

Oligarchy vs. monarchy

As early societies may have become oligarchies as an outgrowth of an alliance between rival tribal chieftains or as the result of a caste system. Oligarchies can often become instruments of transformation, by insisting that monarchs or dictators share power, thereby opening the door to power-sharing by other elements of society (while oligarchy means "the rule of the few," monarchy means "the rule of the one"). One example of power-sharing from one person to a larger group of persons occurred when English nobles banded together in 1215 to force a reluctant King John of England to sign the Magna Carta, a tacit recognition both of King John's waning political power and of the existence of an incipient oligarchy (the nobility). As English society continued to grow and develop, Magna Carta was repeatedly revised (1216, 1217, and 1225), guaranteeing greater rights to greater numbers of people, thus setting the stage for English constitutional monarchy. In an aristocracy, a small group of wealthy or socially prominent citizens control the government. Members of this high social class claim to be, or are considered by others to be superior to the other people because of family ties, social rank, wealth, or religious affiliation. The word "aristocracy" comes from the Greek term meaning rule by the best. Many aristocrats have inherited titles of nobility such as duke or baron.

Examples of oligarchies

Some examples include Vaishali, the First French Republic government under the Directory, and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (only the nobility could vote). A modern example of oligarchy could be seen in South Africa during the 20th century. Here, the basic characteristics of oligarchy are particularly easy to observe, since the South African form of oligarchy was based on race. After the Second Boer War, a tacit agreement was reached between English- and Afrikaans-speaking whites. Together, they made up about twenty percent of the population, but this small percentage ruled the vast native population. Whites had access to virtually all the educational and trade opportunities, and they proceeded to deny this to the black majority even further than before. Although this process had been going on since the mid-18th century, after 1948 it became official government policy and became known worldwide as apartheid. This lasted until the arrival of democracy in South Africa in 1994, punctuated by the transition to a democratically-elected government dominated by the black majority.

The Iron Law of Oligarchy

Some authors, such as Zulma Riley, Keith Riley, Mathew Marquess, and Robert Michels, believe that any political system eventually evolves into an oligarchy. This theory is called the "iron law of oligarchy". According to this school of thought, modern democracies should be considered as elected oligarchies. In these systems, actual differences between viable political rivals are small, the oligarchic elite impose strict limits on what constitutes an 'acceptable' and 'respectable' political position, and politicians' careers depend heavily on unelected economic and media elites. The disadvantage of this position is that it is not falsifiable.[citation needed] As a proposition, it cannot ever be evaluated as incorrect, hence the "iron law" aspect derived from the "any...eventually" aspect. Thus the popular phrase: there is only one political party, the 'incumbent' party.

See also

Government terms:

Links to a recent Russian example of oligarchy:

Relevant authors:

References

  • Ostwald, M. Oligarchia: The Development of a Constitutional Form in Ancient Greece (Historia Einzelschirften; 144). Stuttgart: Steiner, 2000 (ISBN 3-515-07680-8).

External links


 
Translations: Oligarchy
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - oligarki, fåmandsvælde

Nederlands (Dutch)
regime van enkele bevoorrechte personen, staat geregeerd door oligarchie

Français (French)
n. - oligarchie

Deutsch (German)
n. - Oligarchie (Herrschaft einer kleinen Gruppe)

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ολιγαρχία

Italiano (Italian)
oligarchia

Português (Portuguese)
n. - oligarquia (f)

Русский (Russian)
олигархия

Español (Spanish)
n. - oligarquía

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - oligarki, fåmannavälde

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
寡头政治

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 寡頭政治

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 과두정치, 소수의 독재자

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 寡頭政治, 少数独裁政治, 寡頭政治国, 少数独裁者

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) حكم القله‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮שלטון מיעוט רב-כוח, אוליגרכיה‬


 
 
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oligarchist
–archy (suffix)
oligarch

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