" We say no to oligarchy ! " Senator Bernie Sanders , the Vermont Independent who again is running for the popular nomination for president , proclaimed in a 2019 speechto 16,000 supporters in San Francisco .
Sanders , who warns that billionaires are buyingelectionsand exerting too much superpower over the government , habituate the O - wordfrequently , but he ’s not the only one . If you read enough articles on the web , you ’ll see topographic point ranging from Russia , China and Saudi Arabia to Brazil and evenHong Kongdescribed as oligarchies . A2017 Salon articleeven warn of the growing power of a global uber - oligarchy comprised of wealthy , super - knock-down figures ranging from financiers to rock stars . And the conception is n’t just owned by the left hand , either . President Donald Trump may not have used the same terminology , but the billionaire businessman rose to power in part by railing against the " elite " that he accused of disenfranchising ordinary Americans .
If you ’re not a political science major , you may be wondering : What on the nose is an oligarchy , anyway ? And do we really have one in the U.S. ?
" An oligarchy is a combining of wealth and power , and often be given to close down off access to its rank — ' deplume up the ladder , ' " explainsRon Formisano , the William T. Bryan Chair of American History and professor emeritus of account at the University of Kentucky , and source of the books " American Oligarchy : The Permanent Political Class , " and " Plutocracy in America : How Increasing Inequality destroy the Middle Class and Exploits the Poor . "
Oligarchy — from the ancient Greek word oligoi , stand for few — is a concept that goes back to the Greek philosopherAristotle , who used it to describe a society governed by a prime few wealthy or aristocratic multitude , as opposed to rule by a single monarch , or a democracy in which the great lot of masses of humble means hold control condition . Aristotle actually did n’t favor either oligarchy or commonwealth — he preferred a sort of half - decaf cup of joe in which a middle grouping of moderately affluent citizens controlled the reins , as theStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophyexplains .
Founding Fathers Feared Oligarchy
In America , Sanders is n’t the first American politician to be concerned about oligarchy . dread that an entrenched elite group would clutch ability go steady back to the era when the nation was founded . John Adams , who became the second U.S. chairwoman , in particular learn it as a potential menace .
" Our popular history paint us as a revolutionary society that overthrew monarchy , " excuse Luke Mayville , writer of the book " John Adams and the Fear of American Oligarchy . " " But rotation - era America was also full of bad blood towards anything resembling formal nobility or aristocratical privilege . This animosity made its direction into the U.S. Constitution in the signifier of the Nobility Clause of Article I , which forbid the federal government from granting titles of nobility . What made Adams alone was the systematic way in which he theorized about oligarchy and documented the menace that oligarchy had pose throughout history . "
" comparatively ahead of time in his adult life , Adams was strike by the disproportionate influence enjoyed by men of wealth and illustrious lineage , " Mayville says . " But the record shows that he became much more horrendous of oligarchy during his long sojourn as a diplomat in Europe in the recent 1770s and early 1780s . In the old world , he became a measured percipient of the power that went hand - in - hand with family lineage , physical smasher , and especially wealthiness . When he equate these observations of the Old World to conditions in the New World , he saw more similarity than difference . "
But Adams did n’t exactly see the world the same way as do Sanders or Sen. Elizabeth Warren ( D - Mass. ) , another presidential prospect who is concerned about the assiduousness of wealth and might , because he worried about rule by the non - elect as well .
" Adams was keenly mindful of the political power of wealth and the pauperization to contain it , " Mayville say . " But unlike most of today ’s economic populists , Adams was almost as fearful of commonwealth as he was of oligarchy . He think that the many , as well as the few , posed a threat to the stableness of republics . In retrospect , some of his fright of democracy seems paranoid . For example : He shared the belief of many elitist throughout history that world-wide suffrage would inescapably lead to the mass expropriation of individual property . In any case , Adams differs from today ’s critics of oligarchy in that he was not a modest - d ' democrat . ' rather , he was a believer in a ' balanced government ' that counter - act the inevitable ability of wealth and condition with the organized power of ordinary citizen " — something perhaps akin to Aristotle ’s concept of a mixed harness grade .
oligarchy can grow in societiesfor several rationality . In a body politic with a monarchy or totalitarianism , if a leader becomes too frail or incapable to rule , the strata of herculean people under the leader may start to siphon away his authority — and ultimately may replace him with a puppet , or else one of their own members . It ’s also possible for an elite — say , for example , top-notch - wealthy business moguls — to take control condition of a smart set because they ’re honorable at get things done , whether or not those things are in the good interests of everybody else . And there ’s also oligarchy by default option , in which a majority rule essentially withers because ordinary people allow an elite to take over , because it ’s easier than staying informed and grappling with the complexities of governing .
The Masses and the 1 Percent
The doubtfulness of whether the U.S. is sour into an oligarchy — or perhaps already is one — has become a discipline of heated debate . Back in 2014 , Princeton prof of politics Martin Gilens and his Northwestern University workfellow Benjamin I. Page published an depth psychology , in which they studied 1,779 different insurance issues , and concluded that economical elites and chemical group representing business interest had a fate of influence upon U.S. government insurance , while average citizens and involvement group represent them held short sway . ( They did n’t really use the terminal figure oligarchy , though news media newspaper headline summarizing their study did . ) But as this2016 Vox articledescribes , several other scholars published rebutter , arguing that either the masses and the elite did n’t really disagree that much about policy choices , or that when they did , the masses usually prevailed .
Public opinion , though , suggest that most hoi polloi think of the U.S. as oligarchic , even if they do n’t call it that . In a July 2017 poll by the Associated Press - NORC Center for Public Affairs Research , 75 percentage of Americans said that people like them have too little influence in Washington , and 82 percent believe that wealthy people had too much index over the politics .
Here in the U.S. , " It ’s not a matter of restrictions , but more a closing of chance and decrease chances for the middle and lower classes , " Formisano indicate .
Even some billionairesworry about the nation’srising income inequalityis unsustainable and may jeopardize capitalism ’s future , even if they ’re not quite quick to give up all their influence .
