Who held the power in an oligarchy?

Answer 1

a group of men.. ha u need it for homework dont u?

Answer 2

An oligarchy is a form of government in which power rests with a very small elite segment of society in which wealth, family ties, military might, or religious power would have the most prestige.

So in answer to your question it would be the nobility, bishops, generals etc, who would be the leaders.

Answer 3

In an oligarchy, power is help by a small, elite group of people, who share unlimited authority. Their decisions are generally made by consensus within the group.

The question misunderstands the concept of an oligarchy. An oligarchy is "rule by the few"; in practical terms, this means that there never really is a single leader. There may appear to be a leader (a President / King / Chairman / General Secretary), but that is a fiction - that leader is merely a figurehead, or, at best, one who has equal power with others. As such, they can't really be decisive in the same manner as the leader of other forms of government. Oligarchies inevitably become "rule by consensus of the few", which means that a leader is generally either (a) some pure figurehead with no power whatsoever, or (b) the head of one of several major factions, who will be replaced as soon as that faction's influence wanes.

For an example of such oligarchical "leaders", look to any of the General Secretaries of the Soviet Union after Khrushchev - the U.S.S.R. by the mid 70s wasn't a Communist state anymore, but an oligarchy of institutions.

Answer 4

A political system that is ruled either by, or in the interests of, the wealthy.

The above is incorrect. What that describes is a plutocracy. An oligarchy is "rule by the few". It does not specify what "few" get to rule, or exactly how many constitute "a few". Consequently, there are all sorts of oligarchies, distinguished by what type of people make up the ruling class.

Also, "oligarchy" does not detail how the ruling is to be done, only the who. Thus, who the leaders of an oligarchy are is entirely dependent not only on which group the rulers are selected from, but how the government is then organized.

For instance, the ancient Roman Republic could easily be classified as an oligarchy, since only Roman citizens could participate in government, and Roman citizens made up a small minority of the entire population. That form of oligarchy was organized as a representative republican democracy, but it still could still be classified as a form of oligarchy.

In general, political scientists classify something as an oligarchy when the size of the ruling class is very small compared to the total population. A good rule of thumb would be that an oligarchy may exist if the rulers are less than 10% of the population, and it definitely exists if they are less than 1% of the population.

Answer 5

Oligarchies have existed in the world over thousands of years. The term of "oligarchy" has been given by historians to describe a system of government that is controlled by a select and small group of privileged rulers. This group holds power over its citizens and is selective when expanding the oligarchy or when replacing rulers who have died. Perhaps the most written about of oligarchies is the one that controlled the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta.

Answer 6

a group of men.. ha u need it for homework dont u?

Answer 7

IAn oligarchy is ruled by a few people that are selected by social stats or wealth

Answer 8

An oligarchy is where leadership is by a designated and elite group.