Oliviches date back to the 600s BC. AD, when the Greek city-states of Sparta and Athens were ruled by an elite group of educated aristocrats. During the 14th century, the city-state of Venice was controlled by wealthy nobles called “patricians”. More recently, South Africa, which was under white apartheid until 1994, was a classic example of a country ruled by a racial oligarchy. People considered oligarchs are often seen as part of a small group of powerful, elite people whose power comes from wealth, connections, or any other status that makes them highly influential. Although they are few in number, oligarchs do not always act in unison and may even be able to fight each other. However, the fact that they are among the few who have real power makes them oligarchs. Calling someone an oligarch usually implies that they are part of a corrupt and oppressive system, regardless of the official form of government or the specific policies of its leaders. “We never thought about the oligarchs or the dictator`s friends,” he said.

Oligarchy is one of many English words for a type of government or government. Some of these words, such as plutocracy, have an extremely similar meaning (both can be used to refer to the rule of an economic elite, but oligarchy often has the added connotation of corruption). In addition to these two, we have meritocracy – a system in which the talented are selected and advanced on the basis of merit – monarchy – a form of government in which a country is ruled by a king or queen – an ochlocracy government – by the mob” and gerontocracy “ruled by the elders” among many others. French economist Thomas Piketty, in his 2013 book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, notes that “the risk of a drift into oligarchy is real and gives little reason to be optimistic about the direction the United States is taking.” [29] Despite a popularly elected president, Iran is controlled by a religious oligarchy of Islamic clerics and their relatives and friends. Iran`s constitution states that “the one God (Allah)” has “exclusive sovereignty” over the country. Islamic oligarchs took power after the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989. His successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has transferred his family and allies to high government positions and controls the elected president. A country that is supposed to have an oligarchic government can also be called an oligarchy, as many foreigners view the nation as an oppressive oligarchy. The oligarchy can also refer to the class of people who have power in this type of system, as in The country was ruled by an oligarchy composed of a few powerful industrialists. The exclusive consolidation of power by a dominant religious or ethnic minority has also been described as a form of oligarchy. [5] Examples of this system include South Africa under apartheid, Liberia under American Liberians, the Sultanate of Zanzibar, and Rhodesia, where the installation of oligarchic rule by descendants of foreign settlers was primarily seen as the legacy of various forms of colonialism.

[5] This Twitter page follows the air travel of some of the most prominent oligarchs. Another is pursuing “Russian VIP jets” that Putin may use but are not necessarily on board at any given time. Data from MarineTraffic, a global intelligence group, tracks the movements of ships, including megayachts of Russian oligarchs. The data shows that large boats have been on the move in recent days. Ukrainian oligarchs are a group of business oligarchs who quickly emerged on the economic and political scene after Ukraine`s independence in 1991. In total, there are 35 oligarchic groups. [6] Throughout history, oligarchies have often been tyrannical, relying on obedience or public oppression. Aristotle pioneered the use of the term as a meaning for the domination of the rich,[4] for which another term used today is plutocracy. In the early 20th century, Robert Michels developed the theory that democracies, like all large organizations, tend to turn into oligarchies. In his “Iron Law of the Oligarchy,” he proposes that the necessary division of labor in large organizations should lead to the establishment of a ruling class that is primarily concerned with protecting its own power.

The word oligarch can refer to a person who is part of an oligarchy in the sense of the term. My wife has four university degrees. I have two. I asked her last night if she could give me the definition of an oligarch. She said, “You know, that`s exactly what I googled yesterday.” From the Greek word oligarkhes, meaning “few rulers,” an oligarchy is a power structure controlled by a small number of people called oligarchs. Oligarchs can be distinguished and linked by wealth, family ties, nobility, corporate interests, religion, politics, or military might. An oligarch, who is against Russia, offers rewards for capturing commandos occupying government buildings. The clearest collection of oligarch names is included in the “Navalny 35” list, named after jailed Kremlin critic and poisoning survivor Alexei Navalny. It was Navalny, the head of the anti-corruption foundation, who appointed these 35 Russians.

The BBC understands that some EU-sanctioned oligarchs are “shocked” because they find their debit cards no longer work, and they now rely on the use of cash from safes.