Talk: Oligarchy
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South Africa, while undoubtedly an oligarchy, constitutes a special case due to its being based upon racism. An even better example might be Russia, which seems to have substituted a type of "mob-oligarchy" for its former autocracy. I didn't change any of the information on South Africa because it's still technically correct, even though a special case. F. Lee Horn
- You're quite right, FLH. But it gets even worse: Within white South Africa, some families have dominated high-status occupations like law and the church for decades. And today, a large part of the new black political elite in South Africa belongs to the old black aristocracy: Mandela himself is Pondo royalty. That doesn't call his status as a great democrat into question, but it shows the potential for an oligarchy-within-an-oligarchy to develop. I don't know enough about Russia today to comment on that. - clasqm
- I certainly can't argue with your familiarity with South Africa, now can I? :) As to the current situation in Russia, I'm not really sure *anyone* has enough information, including (especially?) Russians! Nice to make your acquaintence. F. Lee Horn
- Your addition to the article is a good one, IMHO. F. Lee Horn
- Isn't it a albocracy? I mean the word for an oligarchy of whites, albocracy? Dustin Asby 11:12, 4 Sep 2004 (UTC)
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Sometimes Oligarchy means 'New Money'
In contradistinction to Aristocracy (as old money), or so I thought. Cursory glance reveal that Aristotle's political typology does not seem to be pertinent to this as I initially mentioned, so my mistake (I did not though edit the article, as I wasn't quite certain of this, and only noted this here in the discussion section).
Discrepancies
The sentance, "Oligarchy is a form of government where most political power effectively rests with a small segment of society (typically the most powerful, whether by wealth, military strength, ruthlessness, or political influence)," is bordering on tautology. Dustin Asby 10:54, 4 Sep 2004 (UTC)
lamens terms
What does it mean???
- You probably mean "layman's terms", although your version might soon be adopted by hack3rz. A layman, technically, is a person who is not a cleric (an employee of the church). More generally, it is a person who does not have specialist knowledge of the subject under discussion. "Layman's terms" are therefore words that a non-specialist can understand. --Heron 16:26, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Sparta
I've had a comment via email on this article, suggesting that it should mention Sparta as a unique form of an oligarchy (a "democratic timocratic monarchical oligarchy"). I've invited the correspondent to this page, but if anyone knows more about this perhaps they could consider adding it. -- sannse (talk) 13:27, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC)
