Does anyone in the USA know what an OLIGARCHY is?

Answer 1

no and we dont care

Answer 2

Governmental system where a few rich, powerful folks rule and usually pass that rule on to a select few, generally their children.

Perhaps it seems that the US is an oligarchy, but it's not. The power is too disseminated and the method of passing power on doesn't follow. Representative government aside, the US is capitalist and that colors everything.

Answer 3

The term has been used frequently in conjunction with the word "Judicial". As in "Judicial Oligarchy" when referring to some US Supreme Court rulings.

Answer 4

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.

[edit]
External links
Online Text: Leonard Whibley, Greek Oligarchies: Their Character and Organisation (1896), still the only full-scale treatment of oligarchy in Classical Greece.
[edit]
See also
Crony capitalism
Dictatorship
Forms of government
Oligopoly
Plutocracy
Political family
Theocracy
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy"
Category: Forms of government

Answer 5

Yes: rule by a small group. Dictionary definition:
1a. Government by a few, especially by a small faction of persons or families.
1b. Those making up such a government.
2. A state governed by a few persons.

It's from Gk. oligarkhia "government by the few," from oligoi "few, small, little" + arkhein "to rule."

Answer 6

Probably not...but

Oligarchy is a form of government where most political power effectively rests with a small segment of society (typically the most powerful, whether by wealth, military strength, ruthlessness, or political influence).

American government??

Answer 7

A form of government where most political power effectively rests with a small segment of society, typically the most powerful.

Answer 8

Government run by few. especially a small faction of persons and families.
I hope this helps. I'd better go before wiegh in about examples..

Answer 9

HEY! Isn't this what the Texas Oil Cartel is doing to us? And all the time I thought they were just religious nuts.

Answer 10

its where a country is run by a small group of people(usually a dictator & a select few appointed by him)

Answer 11

the few families who run each democratic or undemocratic country.