Multiple Oligarchy: Aristotle and Contemporary Elite Politics
31 Pages Posted: 22 Feb 2011 Last revised: 11 Apr 2011
Date Written: April 8, 2011
Abstract
Contemporary social science and participatory theory has raised the question of whether representative government in large-scale modern states constitutes an oligarchy. Using Aristotle’s insight that oligarchy is not a single regime but a spectrum of forms of elite rule, this essay inquires into the precise character of this regime to make sense of the possible roles of participatory politics. First, I introduce Aristotle’s theory of oligarchy as a spectrum of regimes ranging from institutions that broadly favor the wealthy, to hereditary and dynastic rule. Second, using Aristotle’s framework and his account of hairesis (election or choice), I recast representative government as a regime in constant danger of degenerating toward an extreme form of elite rule that bears critical similarities to Aristotle’s hereditary oligarchy. Third, I use Aristotle’s framework to assess contemporary representative government. Finally, I argue that participatory reforms take on a new urgency once the nature of contemporary oligarchy is fully understood.
Keywords: democracy, oligarchy, Aristotle, representative government
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