Oligarchy: Difference between revisions
{{Div col|3}} ... {{Div col end}} |
|||
| Line 13: | Line 13: | ||
==See also== |
==See also== |
||
{{Div col|3}} |
|||
* [[Anarchism]] |
* [[Anarchism]] |
||
* [[Aristocracy]] |
* [[Aristocracy]] |
||
| Line 25: | Line 26: | ||
* [[Plutocracy]] |
* [[Plutocracy]] |
||
* [[Theocracy]] |
* [[Theocracy]] |
||
{{Div col end}} |
|||
==References== |
==References== |
||
Revision as of 08:33, 1 February 2012
Oligarchy (from Greek ὀλιγαρχία, oligarkhía - "rule of the few"[1]) is a form of social organization in which political power is primarily held by a wealthy elite, who comprise a small minority of the population, and who use this power primarily to serve their own class interests.[2]
The word oligarchy is derived from the Greek words "ὀλίγος" (olígos), "a few"[3] and the verb "ἄρχω" (archo), "to rule, to govern, to command".[4]
Iron law of oligarchy
Robert Michels, a German political/social theorist, believed that any political system eventually evolves into an oligarchy. He called this theory the "iron law of oligarchy". However, his thinking might have been skewed by the authoritarian political climate in which he was writing (i.e. Germany in 1911), as well as by the fact that he did not examine any political forces that his contemporaries claimed could cause movement towards democracy rather than oligarchy. [5]
Athenian techniques to prevent the rise of oligarchy
Especially during the Fourth Century BC, after the restoration of democracy from oligarchical coups, the Athenians used Sortition, the drawing of lots for selecting government officers in order to counteract what the Athenians acutely saw as a tendency toward oligarchy in government if a professional governing class were allowed to use their skills for their own benefit.[6] They drew lots from large groups of adult volunteers as a selection technique for civil servants performing judicial, executive, and administrative functions (archai, boulē, and hēliastai).[7] They even used lots for very important posts, such as judges and jurors in the political courts (nomothetai), which had the power to overrule the Assembly.[8]
See also
References
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2012) |
- ^ ὀλιγαρχία, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
- ^ Urbinati, Nadia (2010). "Oligarchy". In Bevir, Mark (ed.). Encyclopedia of Political Theory. SAGE. p. 984. ISBN 9781412958653.
- ^ ὀλίγος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
- ^ ἄρχω, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
- ^ Duncan, Graeme Campbell (1989). Democracy and the capitalist state. Cambridge University Press. p. 129. ISBN 9780521280624.
- ^ M.H. Hansen, The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes 97, 308, et al. (Oxford, 1991)
- ^ Bernard Manin, Principles of Representative Government 11-24 (1997).
- ^ Bernard Manin, Principles of Representative Government 19-23 (1997).
Further reading
- Ostwald, M. Oligarchia: The Development of a Constitutional Form in Ancient Greece (Historia Einzelschirften; 144). Stuttgart: Steiner, 2000 (ISBN 3-515-07680-8)
- On Oligarchy: Ancient Lessons for Global Politics. University of Toronto Press. 2011. ISBN 9781442609860.
{{cite book}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter|authors=(help) - Oligarchy. Cambridge University Press. 2011. ISBN 9780521182980.
{{cite book}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter|authors=(help)
External links
- Online Text: Leonard Whibley, Greek Oligarchies: Their Character and Organisation (1869), still the only full-scale treatment of oligarchy in Classical Greece.
- M Hollingsworth and S Lansley, Londongrad, From Russia With Cash, 2009, 4th Estate
- Database with contact details of Russian oligarchs