During the second half of the fifth century B.C.E., when Athenian ascendancy promoted democratic forms of government, there were still many oligarchic states in Greece, the most notable perhaps being at Corinth and at Thebes. In Greece, the oligarchs were often a section of the old nobility which had excluded the poorer nobles from power. Ancient Greek oligarchs characteristically possessed greater wealth and influence than the rest of the community, but noble birth was not a necessary condition for belonging to the ruling elite. Oligarchy (oligarchia, “rule by the few”) refers to the limitation of political power to only a small portion of the community, such as a few families or individuals (the oligarchs). The word oligarchy (l´ gärk) is derived from the Greek words for “few” (ὀλίγον, óligon) and “rule” (ἄρχω, arkho).
330 BC, with modern alabaster mantle / Wikimedia Commons Roman copy in marble of a Greek bronze bust of Aristotle by Lysippos, c. In practice, almost all governments, whatever their form, are run by a small minority of members of society, and it is necessary to further examine the ways in which these individuals acquire and retain power in order to correctly understand whether a system of government is a oligarchy. Historically, there have been organized oligarchies, and unofficial oligarchies in which a group of “advisers” dictated the policies of an official ruler. However, neither wealth nor noble birth are necessary conditions for belonging to the privileged group which rules an oligarchy. Oligarchies have sometimes been synonymous with aristocracies, which were ruled by members of a noble class, or with plutocracies, ruled by the wealthy members of a community. In most classic oligarchies, governing elites were recruited exclusively from a hereditary ruling caste, whose members tended to exercise power in the interests of their own class.
The term was used by Aristotle to refer to despotic power exercised by a small and privileged group for often corrupt or selfish purposes. Oligarchy is a form of government in which political power effectively rests with a small, elite segment of society. When nobles and wealthy members of communities reigned supreme.
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