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.

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, as it can 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
Princeton University made a study of the analysis of the governmental programmes, and made the decision that the USA had converted from a Democracy to an Oligarchy, where elections became just a ceremonial procedure. According to the top 1% of the U.S. population by wealth in 2007 had a larger share of total income than at any time since 1928. In 2011, according to PolitiFact and others, the top 400 wealthiest Americans "have more wealth than half of all Americans combined." thus, they had a big power on the American Politics in the Senate.

Russia during Yeltsin's presidency in the 1990's is the most 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 were so big that they controlled the newspapers and even some people as Sergei Mavrodi, retained more power than the state. In the 2000's 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".

Ukraine's situation is similar to what Russia had, as business oligarchs have big political influence. The oligarchs' influence on the Ukrainian Government is extreme. The notable people include Petro Poroshenko,  Viktor Medvedchuk,  Ihor Kolomoyskyi,  Rinat Akhmetov,  Dmytro Firtash, etc. Overall, there are about 35 oligarch groups. In 2011 and even to this day some analysts and Ukrainian politicians believe that some Ukrainian businesses tycoons have extremely close relations with Russia. In 2008, the combined wealth of Ukraine's 50 richest oligarchs was equal to 85% of the country's GDP, by end of 2013 the number was 45%. In 2021,  Volodymyr Zelensky has singed a law that formally defined an oligarch:
 * Involvement in political life
 * [[File:Mediastocracy_flair.png]] Influence on mass media
 * Is a de facto owner of a monopoly, and maintains or strenghtens it for over 1 year.
 * Has at least 2700 million Hryvnas in assets.

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
Oligarchy_flag.svg
 * 1) Draw a ball
 * 2) Colour it yellow
 * 3) Draw 6 red circles at the vertices of an imaginary hexagon
 * 4) Add one eye
 * 5) For the second eye, draw a monocle
 * 6) You are finished

Friends

 * [[File: klep.png]] Kleptocracy - My true successor.
 * [[File: Plutocrat.png]] Plutocracy - I already told you, you're my true successor.
 * [[File:Tetra.png]] Tetrarchy - You are considered small but still not one.
 * [[File:Sec.png]] Authoritarianism - The best way to stay in control.
 * [[File:Illum.png]] Illuminatism - You're me plus stealth.
 * [[File:Blanqui.png]] Blanquism - The only kind of socialism I actually like.

Frenemies

 * [[File:Diarchy.png]] Diarchy - You are borderline monarchy.
 * [[File:lib.png]] Liberalism - You have always been a fool, if not a useful one.
 * [[File:Authdem.png]] Authoritarian Democracy - He likes me but hates it when I'm with [[File: klep.png]] him.
 * [[File:Merit.png]] Meritocracy - Why do the members of our cabal need to be chosen based on "merit"?
 * [[File:Pop.png]] Populism - Thanks for giving [[File:Fake_populist.png]] me power, moron.

Enemies

 * [[File:Arist.png]] Aristocracy - You're pompous and foolish.
 * [[File:Auto.png]] 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.
 * [[File:Ochlo.png]] Ochlocracy - Biggest enemies.
 * [[File:Dem.png]] Democracy - This ideology doesn't exist.
 * [[File:awaj.png]] Anarchism - Neither does this one.
 * [[File:Civlibert.png]] Civil Libertarianism - Or this one.
 * [[File:Iso.png]] Isocracy - Keep dreaming, sonny.

Literature

 * Political Parties: A Sociological Study of Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy by Robert Michels
 * The Ruling Class by Gaetano Mosca
 * The Mind and Society: A Treatise on General Sociology by Vilfredo Pareto
 * anything Putin has wrote

Wikipedia

 * Oligarchy
 * Elite
 * Elitiism
 * The Establishment
 * Business Oligarch
 * Collective leadership
 * Cabal
 * Directorial system

Videos

 * The Intractable Problem of Democracy and Elite Theory: Gaetono Mosca and Vilfredo Pareto by The Academic Agent

Gallery
Oligarchia