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The term plutocracy is generally used as a pejorative to describe or warn against an undesirable condition. [3] [4] Throughout history, political thinkers and philosophers have condemned plutocrats for ignoring their social responsibilities, using their power to serve their own purposes and thereby increasing poverty and nurturing class conflict and corrupting societies with greed and hedonism.
Term Description Examples Autocracy: Autocracy is a system of government in which supreme power (social and political) is concentrated in the hands of one person or polity, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regularized mechanisms of popular control (except perhaps for the implicit threat of a coup d'état or mass insurrection).
Kleptocracy is different from plutocracy (rule by the richest) and oligarchy (rule by a small elite). In a kleptocracy, corrupt politicians enrich themselves secretly outside the rule of law , through kickbacks , bribes , and special favors from lobbyists and corporations, or they simply direct state funds to themselves and their associates .
Solon introduced the ideas of timokratia as a graded oligarchy in his Solonian Constitution for Athens in the early 6th century BC. His was the first known deliberately implemented form of timocracy, allocating political rights and economic responsibility depending on membership of one of four tiers of the population.
For example, according to Hannah Arendt, the view of Aristotle was that, "to be political…meant that everything was decided through words and persuasion and not through violence"; [24] while according to Bernard Crick, "politics is the way in which free societies are governed. Politics is politics, and other forms of rule are something else."
Modern depictions of aristocracy tend to regard it not as the ancient Greek concept of rule by the best, but more as an oligarchy or plutocracy—rule by the few or the wealthy. [citation needed] The concept of aristocracy according to Plato has an ideal state ruled by the philosopher king.
The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may improve this article, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new article, as appropriate. (August 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
The term is generally used by critics of a national government. It has been used variously in the past to describe the Russian government under Boris Yeltsin and later, under Vladimir Putin, [10] the government of Egypt under Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, [11] governments in sub-Saharan Africa, [12] the government of the Philippines under Rodrigo Duterte, [13] and the governments under some United ...