Plutocracy is a form of oligarchy in which society is controlled or controlled by a minority formed from the richest members of this group. Currently, there are countries in the world in which the plutocracy regime has actually been established.
general information
From the ancient Greek language, “plutos” is wealth, and “kratos” is power, that is, plutocracy is the power of wealth in society. This term was first used by Xenophon. The difference between plutocracy and systems such as democracy, capitalism, anarchism, socialism and others is that it is not based on any philosophical doctrine. The concept of plutocracy is used to describe the role of the wealthy sections of society in decision-making by officially ruling groups in the respective country. In this sense, plutocracy is a critical synthesis of democracy, universal suffrage and parliamentarism, whose functioning is disrupted due to the influence of wealthy members of society.
Plutocracy concept
According to the definition of what plutocracy is from a classical point of view, we can say that this is a form of oligarchy that existed in the city-polis of Greece, in Rome in the 2nd century BC, in Carthage, as well as in some medieval states, for example, Venice, Florence and some others. In all these states, the elite layers had a significant influence on the political decisions of the government, and in some cases even determined the minimum level of wealth that allowed a person to gain access to the ruling posts in the country.
The plutocracy regime, as a rule, is characterized by the following features:
- Representatives of the authorities pay attention only to those sections of society that support them, while ignoring the will of the whole people.
- There is a possibility that a representative of power will be removed from his post by the plutocrats.
- There is a responsibility of the representative of the authorities to those who support him, and to whom he must report on his actions.
- The nature of the measures taken by the representative of power is largely determined by instructions from the plutocrats.
Thus, plutocracy is a strong bond between the rich and the authorities. Usually this system appears in those states where political power is highly dependent on economic power.
Plutocracy as a Historical Phenomenon
For the first time, the Greek philosopher and historian Xenophon mentions plutocracy in the 5th century BC. By this term he understands the regime prevailing in a number of cities in Greece, in which large land owners sought to enslave the poor classes of free Greeks thanks to the introduction of large taxes and thereby wanted to push them out of the political life of the city completely. Plutocracy eventually led to a political crisis that ended with Solon's reforms. In the II century AD, this system also took place in the Roman Republic.
For Xenophon and other subsequent historians, plutocracy is a source of political instability, as it is the result of corruption of other political systems, such as democracy or aristocracy.
Throughout history, many thinkers, including Seneca, Winston Churchill and Noam Chomsky, believed that this system sets primarily economic goals and does not pay attention to the problems of society and the state.
Plutocracy and Political Party Financing
Unlike the states of antiquity and the Middle Ages, at present, plutocracy does not exist as a manifest and open phenomenon. The impact on political decisions made at the state level is due to indirect methods of intervention and control. One of them is the financing of political parties.
As a result of this funding, a holding of large companies is formed around state power, which turns out to be strongly connected with political parties and the media. Note that in some countries there are laws that determine the amount that an individual or legal entity can contribute to support political parties, but all these laws offer loopholes through which the sponsorship financial flow is absolutely unlimited.
The situation in the modern world
Many economists and scientists identify a number of examples of plutocracy among the countries of the world.
- Economist Paul Krugman believes that plutocracy exists in the United States, because in this country, during the election, leading large economic firms spend huge amounts of money on promoting their parties and candidates.
- Speaking about examples of countries with plutocracy, many economists call European states whose financial strength and their influence on the rest of the world is determined by the so-called Troika: the International Monetary Fund, the Central European Bank and the European Commission. The existence of a European plutocracy has shown itself during the crisis of the euro, during the economic crisis in the world in 2008 and during other events.