Thus, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels insisted that, throughout the history of capitalism, the key capitalists had controlled the government; they coined the dictum, “the state is the executive committee of the exploiting class.” The Italian political scientist Gaetano Mosca likewise insisted that a “ruling class” always constituted the effective oligarchic control. If you say that you can't fight the oligarchy, you mean the leaders of such a place. Noun (wikipedia oligarchy) (oligarchies) A government run by only a few, often the wealthy. By definition, an oligarchy is a small group of people who have control over an organization, an institution, or even a country. In the Aristotelian classification of government, there were two forms of rule by the few: aristocracy and its debased form, oligarchy.... Friedrich Engels, German socialist and supporter of Karl Marx, 1879. Besides these two, we have meritocracy “a system in which the talented are chosen and moved ahead on the basis of their achievement,” monarchy “a form of government in which a country is ruled by a king or queen,” ochlocracy “government by the mob," and gerontocracy “rule by elders,” among many others. is that oligarchy is a government run by only a few, often the wealthy while monarchy is a government in which sovereignty is embodied within a single, today usually hereditary head of state (whether as a figurehead or as a powerful ruler). These groups of people may be distinguished by royalty, wealth, education, or military control. An oligarchyis a form of government in which power is vested in the hands of a small group, because of factors which favor them, like wealth, race, political connections, military capability, education, etc. His reasoning was that, no matter how egalitarian or even radical the original ideology and goals of a party or union may be, there must emerge a limited group of leaders at the centre who can direct power efficiently, get things done through an administrative staff, and evolve some kind of rigorous order and ideology to ensure the survival of the organization when faced by internal division and external opposition. 2 : a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes a military oligarchy was established in the country also : a group exercising such control An oligarchy ruled the nation. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/oligarchy, The Balance - Oligarchies: Pros and Cons, With Causes and Examples, oligarchy - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). By definition, an oligarchy is a form of government where the power is in the hands of a small number of elite people. An example of an oligarchy is a society in which a small group of dictators is in charge of the … English. “So nobody must be allowed to think at all. In practice, however, almost all governments, … Oligarchy is a type of government controlled by a small group of people 1.2 Cambridge Dictionary A type of government by powerful people in a small group is called oligarchy 1.3 Merriam-Webster Dictionary What made you want to look up oligarchy? The Big Picture. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Most classic oligarchies have resulted when governing elites were recruited exclusively from a ruling caste—a hereditary social grouping that is set apart from the rest of society by religion, kinship, economic status, prestige, or even language. They maintain their power through their relationships with each other. (Definition of oligarchy from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press) Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. In the Aristotelian classification of government, there were two forms of rule by the few: aristocracy and its debased form, oligarchy. Delivered to your inbox! The next form of government is oligarchy. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Oligarchies in which members of the ruling group are wealthy or exercise their power through their wealth are known as plutocracies. Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible). 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. About six centuries later, in northern Italy, some of these entities developed into more or less independent city-states and inaugurated systems of government based… Jimmy Carter comments on the influence of money in politics ... “Oligarchy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oligarchy. 2. uncountable noun Other articles where Constitutional oligarchy is discussed: democracy: Constitutional oligarchies: After the western Roman Empire collapsed in 476, the Italian Peninsula broke up into a congeries of smaller political entities. Oligarchs will secure effective control whether the formal authority is vested in the people, a monarch, the proletariat, or a dictator. Such states are often controlled by families who pass their influence from one generation to the next, but inheritance is not a necessary condition of oligarchy. 1 : government by the few The corporation is ruled by oligarchy. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 'All Intensive Purposes' or 'All Intents and Purposes'? Down with the public schools! Oligarchy is one of numerous English words for a type of rule or government. As per its definition, an oligarchy is a system of government where the few - be it families, businesses, scholars, or individuals - rule. The people who hold the power in an oligarchy are called “oligarchs” and are related by characteristics such as wealth, family, nobility, corporate interests, religion, politics, or military power. Omissions? An oligarchy is a power structure that allows a few businesses, families, or individuals to rule. How to use a word that (literally) drives some pe... Do you know these earlier meanings of words? Accessed 25 Jan. 2021. The failing Soviet state left the ownership of state assets contested, which allowed for informal deals with former USSR officials (mostly in Russia and Ukraine) as a means to acquire state … Those who make up an oligarchic government. 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. Those few ruling members have enough power to create policies that benefit them to the exclusion of the rest of society. For example, on… Sometimes oligarchy governments are controlled by a few families who pass their power from one generation to the next. Oligarchies in which members of the ruling group are wealthy or exercise their power through their wealth are known as plutocracies. An oligarchy is a small group of people who control and run a particular country or organization. Oligarchy refers to the government system ruled and controlled by a small group of privileged people whereas plutocracy refers to the government system ruled and controlled by a wealthy minority. Autocracy, democracy and oligarchy are terms used to define different systems of government. Oligarchy is a term for a government in which power is held by a select few individuals or a small class of powerful people. The ruling party is the major difference between oligarchy and plutocracy. The ruling party in an … Subsequent writers of various persuasions have attempted either to expand on Michels’s thesis, extending it to legislatures, religious orders, and other organizations, or to restrict or criticize the thesis, charging that the iron law of oligarchy is not universal and that some unions and parties do maintain a viable system of democratic expression and governance. The type of power held by a party boss in a democracy, while overwhelming in relation to any single member of the party, is very different from that wielded by the boss of the single party in a totalitarian or authoritarian system. And what manner of government do you term oligarchy?. Political science and sociology have differentiated more carefully between various types of control and power. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The word oligarchy is from the Greek words for "few" and "rule".. In this sense, oligarchy is a debased form of aristocracy, which denotes government by the few in which power is vested in the best individuals. Oligarchy becomes tyrannical and/or oppressive when there is a limitation in the separation of powers and when the rule of law is violated. Some political scientists have argued that the contemporary United States is an oligarchy or a plutocracy, because its great inequality of wealth and income (as compared with other industrialized countries) enables economic elites and corporations to influence public policy to their advantage, often against the preferences of the majority of ordinary citizens. The valuations of target companies then explode, too, but street-level investors, once again, are shut out of these stratospheric early gains, which flow to the same impregnable, Many of New York's housewives have links to political, The alternative is in the hands of the progressive insurgents, those truth tellers whose agenda requires deficit spending to promote the public good, and not to feed the ravenous appetites of an entrenched, The judges Kennedy has appointed in the South are designed to protect the, On the fringe of the left there are those who want to overthrow the racist, cisgendered, patriarchal neoliberal, As a former senior military intelligence officer told Belton, the KGB once had to serve the, From 1994 to 2000, when Putin came to power, Russia was an, Post the Definition of oligarchy to Facebook, Share the Definition of oligarchy on Twitter, The Difference Between 'Hoard' and 'Horde'. If effective control changes hands as rapidly as it does in a city of the United States or a British trade union, it is doubtful that those exercising it should be spoken of as a “class” or an “elite.” The expression “the few” is too abstract to convey much information. Vilfredo Pareto elaborated the idea in his doctrine of the “elite.” The modern tendency to analyze social patterns in terms of an elite, though greatly reinforced by Pareto’s theory, goes further back than Marx and Engels, who employed elite to describe the class-conscious communists, the leading group within the proletariat. 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