What impact does oligarchy have on American society?

Answer 1

Impact on SocietyThere are two types of oligarchy: caste and elected oligarchy. In the case of caste, oligarchy is of inheritance. This means if your parents are oligarchs, their political power will be passed on to you when they die. Elected oligarchy was, ironically, just the synonym for democracy. In this type of "oligarchy", the common elects the members of government. This small group of representative of people is in charge of running the country and faced by hundreds of decisions to make, cannot afford to take into account of every single opinion from the others. Hence, democracy nevertheless is still oligarchic. In fact, Robert Michels, a syndicalism sociologist suggested in his book "Political Parties" that any forms of organization will develop into oligarchy, some are more democratic and some are more autocratic. This is known as the "Iron Law of Oligarchy". Knowing what kind of organization the oligarchy aimed to reach e.g. democracy at the start is a key point to know what effect it will bring to the society. In this part of section, we are going to have a closer look on the impact of oligarchy on a society. We will focus mainly on the "caste" oligarchy rather than democracy (you can study it by entering the democracy page). This is because most people were more familiar with this type of oligarchy. Social ImpactOligarchy is inevitably related to aristocracy (rule by noble and elite) and plutocracy (Rule of the wealthy).The oligarchs are a group of privileged people. They receive probably the best education and hold many special rights. This is more likely to create a system of social classification. In the Roman Republic, there are three distinctive classes, namely the Patrician, Equestrian and Plebian class. Likewise, any other oligarchic society will have two groups - the rich and the privileged and the poor who does not have influence. The majority of the people will be classified into the group "poor and not influential". However, you will find that most wealth went into the pocket of those few privileged people.