

City-states from Ancient Greece were oligarchies. In a plutocracy, only the wealthy rule the government. Oligarchy is a form of government where power rests with a small elite segment of society distinguished by royalty, wealth, family, military influence or occult spiritual hegemony. However, the main difference between plutocracy and aristocracy is their ruling class plutocracy is the government by the wealthy whereas aristocracy is the government by the nobility, the hereditary ruling class. An oligarchy is a type of government ruled by a small group of people chosen because of any of several attributes such as their education, military record, social status, education, religion, or wealth. The concept of plutocracy may be advocated by the wealthy classes of a society in an indirect or surreptitious fashion, though the term itself is almost always used in a pejorative sense. Oligarchy refers to a government system where the governance is under the control of a small group of privileged people. Plutocracy and aristocracy are two forms of oligarchy, which refers to the rule by an elite few. Unlike systems such as democracy, capitalism, socialism or anarchism, plutocracy is not rooted in an established political philosophy. The first known use of the term was in 1631. Plutocracy (Greek: πλοῦτος, ploutos, ‘wealth’ + κράτος, kratos, ‘rule’) or plutarchy, is a form of society defined as being ruled or controlled by a function of wealth or higher income. They even used lots for posts, such as judges and jurors in the political courts (nomothetai), which had the power to overrule the Assembly. They drew lots from large groups of adult volunteers to pick civil servants performing judicial, executive, and administrative functions (archai, boulē, and hēliastai).
Oligarchy vs plutocracy professional#
Aristotle pioneered the use of the term as a synonym for rule by the rich, for which another term commonly used today is plutocracy.Įspecially during the fourth century BCE, after the restoration of democracy from oligarchical coups, the Athenians used the drawing of lots for selecting government officers to counteract what the Athenians saw as a tendency toward oligarchy in government if a professional governing class were allowed to use their skills for their own benefit. The historically normal form of rule in the US is not democracy but plutocratic oligarchy, as is clearly demonstrated by the classic research of G. Throughout history, oligarchies have often been tyrannical, relying on public obedience or oppression to exist. Such states are often controlled by families who typically pass their influence from one generation to the next, but inheritance is not a necessary condition for the application of this term. He also believed that oligarchy resulted with degeneration. He believed aristocracy to be the best form of governance with tyranny being the worst. The other forms of government discussed by him are Timocracy, democracy, and tyranny. These people might be distinguished by nobility, wealth, family ties, education or corporate, religious or military control. Oligarchy and aristocracy are classical regimes or forms of government discussed by Plato, the Greek philosopher. Oligarchy (from Greek ὀλιγαρχία (oligarkhía) from ὀλίγος (olígos), meaning ‘few’, and ἄρχω (arkho), meaning ‘to rule or to command’) is a form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people.
