Oligarchy

Oligarchy is a political system where a small group of individuals are the collective rulers, usually indirectly through lobbying a head of state, though this group can rule directly in some cases. This group may or may not be distinguished from the masses by one or several traits such as age and/or wealth.

History

First definitions

Oligarchy's history can be remoted to the start of the civilizations as we know, and itself it was firstly mentioned by Aristotle and Plato. Aristotle defined it as a degenerative form of Aristocracy, while Plato argued oligarchy will arise when the succession of an aristocratic system is perpetuated by blood or mythical transfer, without the ethical and managerial qualities of the best arising on their own merit, contrary to Meritocracy. Basically a step to degenerate to a Tyranny.

First oligarchies that are documented appeared in Ancient Greece, such examples could be shown as the Thirty Tyrants of Athens or the Spartan system of "rotating" ephors, which limited the power of the kings. Which was heavily criticised by Plato and Aristotle. However, the widespread opinion in his time about the need for a property qualification in the election of the most worthy — as it happened in Carthage — Aristotle also rejected because of the actual " purchase of power».

Aristotle defined the Oligarchy in four types:

When moderate property is in the hands of the majority, by virtue of which the owners have the opportunity to take part in the government, and since the number of such people is large, the supreme power is inevitably in the hands of the law, not of the people. For to the extent that they are far from the monarchy if their property is not so large that they can enjoy their leisure without care, and not so insignificant that they need the support of the state-they will inevitably demand that the law should rule over them, and not themselves.

The number of people who own property is less than the number of people in the first type of oligarchy, but the size of the property itself is greater. Having a large economic resource, these owners also make more political demands. Therefore, they themselves choose from among the other citizens those who are allowed to govern the state. But because they are not yet strong enough to govern without the application of the law, they establish a law suitable for them. If the situation becomes more tense in the sense that the number of owners decreases, and the amount of property in the hands of each individual such owner increases.

All offices are concentrated in the hands of the proprietors, and the law commands that, after their death, their sons succeed them in office.

When their property grows to an enormous size and they acquire a mass of supporters, it turns out a dynastic oligarchy, close to the monarchy, and then the rulers become people-oligarchs and not the law — this is the fourth type of oligarchy, corresponding to the extreme type of degenerate aristocracy.

Oligarchy is inherently related to Plutocracy, and can thus be considered a subtype of it.

Modern definition

Oligarchy was very unknown until the French Revolution, when they redefined the term in of "the rule of few" to "the merge of the political and economic power". Intellectuals talked explained about the harmfulness of this phenomenon by the fact that such a merger leads to corruption, unfair competition and monopolism, which in turn undermines the country's economy and makes it weak and uncompetitive at the international level. Under an oligarchy, prices rise and the quality of products falls, as economic competitors within the country are suppressed by the oligarchs by political means in the interests of their own factories. Since then, the term oligarchy has been regularly used in an expanded sense. Robert Michels formulated in 1911 the "Iron law of Oligarchy" which formulated that democracy is impossible and all will go to an Oligarchy.

Soviet political-economic writers recoined the modern definition of the rule of the narrow group of people as rich or elderly.

Modern oligarchies

Russia

Russia after 1991 remains a remarkable example of an oligarchy, like the Semibankirschina, or the rule of the seven bank leaders' name that contrasted it with the Seven Boyars power. The power of those are so big that they control the newspapers and even some people as Sergei Mavrodi, retained more power than the state. In the 2000s the Oligarchs still controlled most of the state enterprises and economy, even though in 2020, Dmitri Peskov claimed that "there are no oligarchs in Russia". Putin largely maintains the oligarchies and has a mutually good relationship with them.

Malaysia

Malaysia during Mahathir's Seventh Cabinet (2018-2020) consisted of a five-member advisory team called "Council of Eminent Persons" (CEP) or "Council of Elders" (Malay: Majlis Penasihat Kerajaan, literally Government Advisory Council), which is similar to an oligarch system that advises the Government of Malaysia. The Council consists of Daim Zainuddin, Zeti Akthar Aziz, Robert Kwok Hok Nien, Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Hassan Marican.

Beliefs

Most people who believe in Oligarchical forms of government generally belief that an Oligarchy is inescapable and natural.

This is belief is backed by commonly seen statistical phenomena as the Pareto principle and the less scientific Sturgeon's Law. With Pareto principle being the principle stating that within most given scenarios 20% of the population will be responsible for 80% of the productivity, and Sturgeon's law being the general rule that around 90% of any given selection will be of low quality (which can be applied to people and their ability or desire to rule others).

The Pareto principle can be seen in the polcompball community, with 20% of users receiving 90% of upvotes(though this data may be out of date now).

Another example of statistical likelihood of Oligarchical systems to emerge is Robert Michel's Iron Law of Oligarchy, which is a rule stating that fundamentally all large organisations are oligarchical in nature and any attempt at getting rid of such a structure fundamentally (such as done in Socialist Parties and Trade Unions) only ends up re-enforcing it.

How to Draw

Draw a ball
Colour it yellow
Draw 6 red circles at the vertices of an imaginary hexagon
Add one eye
For the second eye, draw a monocle
You are finished

Relationships

Friends

Gerontocracy - Believe it or not, this old man is actually my son.
Kleptocracy - My true successor.
Plutocracy - I already told you, you're my true successor.
Tetrarchy - You are considered small but still not one.
Authoritarianism - My grandpa, who is way too easy to control.
Illuminatism - You're me plus stealth.
Blanquism - The only kind of socialism I actually like.
Timocracy - Hmm, I guess landlords can make good leaders.

Frenemies

Diarchy - You are borderline monarchy.
Liberalism - You have always been a fool, if not a useful one.
Authoritarian Democracy - He likes me but hates it when I'm with him.
Meritocracy - Why do the members of our cabal need to be chosen based on "merit"?
Populism - Thanks for giving me power, moron.
Democracy - What a useful idiot!

Enemies

Aristocracy - You're pompous and foolish.
Autocracy - You're an even more foolish and selfish prick who wants to rule alone instead of sharing power with other members of our cabal.
Anarchism - Neither does this one.
Ochlocracy - Or this one.
Isocracy - Keep dreaming, sonny.
Apoliticism - Go back to work, bread eater!