Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a
form of government where most or all
political power effectively rests with a small segment of society (typically the most powerful, whether by wealth, family, military strength, ruthlessness, or political influence). The word
oligarchy is from the
Greek words for "few" (
oligo) and "rule" (
arkhos). Some political theorists have argued that all governments are inevitably oligarchies no matter the supposed political system.
Oligarchies are often controlled by a few powerful families whose children are raised and mentored to be heirs of the power of the oligarchy, often at some sort of expense to those governed. In contrast to
aristocracy ("government by the 'best'"), this power may not always be exercised openly, the oligarchs preferring to remain "the
power behind the throne", exerting control through
economic means. 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.
A
society may become an oligarchy by default as an outgrowth of the shifting alliances of warring tribal chieftains, although any form of government may transform into an oligarchy at some point in its evolution. The most likely mechanism for this transformation is a gradual accumulation of otherwise unchecked
economic power. Oligarchies may also evolve into more classically
authoritarian forms of government, sometimes as the result of one family gaining ascendancy over the others. Many of the
European monarchies established during the late
Middle Ages began in this way.
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. One example of this process 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. As English society continued to grow and develop, the 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.
An example of a historical oligarchic family would be the
Medicis, a very powerful family from Florence. A modern example of oligarchy could be seen in
South Africa during the 20th century, or in
Tunisia from the early
1990s until today. 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 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.
In some
Latin American countries, the concept of oligarchy is extended to include governmental and military officials, without necessarily implying
nepotism.
Capitalism as a social system is sometimes described as an oligarchy. In capitalist society, power - economic, cultural and political - rests in the hands of the capitalist class or, to put it another way, the few who have a vested interest in the maintenance of the system.
Some authors such as
Vilfredo Pareto,
Gaetano Mosca and
Robert Michels believe that any political system will eventually evolve into an oligarchy (
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 relatively small and strict limits are imposed (by the oligarchic elite) on what constitutes 'acceptable' and 'respectable' political positions. Furthermore, politicians' careers depend heavily on unelected economic and media elites.
The historian
Spencer R. Weart in his book
Never at War argues that oligarchies rarely make war with one another.
*Online Text: Leonard Whibley,
Greek Oligarchies: Their Character and Organisation (1896), still the only full-scale treatment of oligarchy in Classical Greece.
*
Crony capitalism*
Dictatorship*
Forms of government*
Oligopoly*
Plutocracy*
Political family*
Theocracy
