Oligarchy
Topic: Democracy: Forms of Government, Principles and Outcomes · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 9 "From the Rulers to the Ruled: Types of Governments"
Meaning
Oligarchy means rule by a small group of wealthy or powerful families or people. The word comes from Greek olígos ("few") and árkhō ("rule"). The few decide for everyone, and the rest have little say. Even a democracy can show oligarchic traits when political and business elites capture policy, meaning they bend it to serve their own interests.
Example
Class 7 warns that capture of institutions by a few is a challenge to democracy. In India, the top 1% held about 22.6% of income and 40.1% of wealth in 2022–23 (World Inequality Lab, 2024). This raises the worry that economic power could turn into political power.
Don't confuse with
- Plutocracy: a type of rule by the few where the defining feature is wealth. Oligarchy can rest on wealth, birth or other kinds of power.
Related concepts
- Absolute monarchy
- Constitutional monarchy
- Dictatorship
- Totalitarianism
- Authoritarianism
- Plutocracy
- Technocracy