Managing a country is a very difficult and complex task. For this reason, throughout history, commanders, leaders, politicians and philosophers have designed and implemented many different forms of government. One of them is oligarchy. Oligarchy is actually different from other forms of government because no one comes out to let us all be oligarchs and take over the country.
Even with a very democratic election, the formation of an oligarchy over time, that is, the gathering of the entire administration in the hands of a single group, has been seen in many different states throughout history. What is more interesting is that, according to some theorists, oligarchy appears as an inevitable reality. Let’s take a closer look at what an oligarchy is and see what it means today.
First of all, let’s understand what it is; What is oligarchy?
Oligarchy, a term that came to our language from French, was formed by the derivation of the Greek words oligo, meaning few, and arkhein, meaning to rule. The oligarchy, also known as team power, minority power; It is a form of government in which the entire administration of a state and its organs are in the hands of a small group.
So, what exactly does oligarchy mean?
Its basic definition can be a bit confusing because governments have already been in the hands of a possible minority group and this minority runs the country. However, in the management in the form of oligarchy, there is a relationship between agha and pasha in the roughest terms. The group holding the management owns this management because of their common interests.
The parliamentarians who were brought into the parliament through a democratic election are not oligarchs. However, it is oligarchy management that they design all their administrative staff not according to merit but according to their parties, communities or similar groups. In other words, if the ruling group is handing over the entire administration to those who own it, then you are the oligarchy.
Are oligarchy and aristocracy the same thing?
From a distance, we can say that the oligarchy is actually the same form of government as the aristocracy, which has been practiced for many years and is still practiced in some countries. However, there is an extremely fundamental difference between them; Persons under the aristocracy must come from noble families, whereas in the oligarchy this is not the case.
What binds the oligarchs together is actually the relationship of interest they have established between them. They do not need to come from the same religion, creed, nationality, race or family. Anyone who agrees with the idea that you should scratch my back and I will scratch yours so that we can eat this country’s goods well will take part in the administration of the oligarchy. Of course, these make up a small group.
How did the oligarchy, a form of government based on interests, come about?
Frankly, we do not have any information that this state established an oligarchy at this time, but the first people to talk about the oligarchy are of course the Ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Arosteles, as we should not be surprised. Both philosophers defined oligarchy as the despotic rule of the minority and described it as the corrupt state of the aristocracy.
As we mentioned in the introduction, no government has ever said that we are oligarchs and we rule the country with an oligarchy, but this form of government has been seen by philosophers throughout history and has often been the subject of criticism. For this reason, we can say that oligarchy has existed since the concept of state administration emerged, and perhaps even has to be.
There is an assertive view that says oligarchy is inevitable:
One of the most detailed studies on the oligarchy was made by the German sociologist Robert Michels, who lived between 1876 and 1936. Michels, who examined how the oligarchy was practiced throughout history in his studies, also predicted the future of the oligarchy and put forward a theory that he called the Bronze Law of Oligarchy.
According to the Bronze Law of Oligarchy, no matter what form of government is applied or which political system is being run, eventually the form of government will turn into oligarchy. Because the dominant group, which wants to keep its political rivals in the background, will limit important positions and positions.
According to Michels’ theory, which talks about surprising details, since these limitations will be left to the monopoly of the bosses who control the economy and the media, the management will inevitably turn into an oligarchy because of these people who do not have a political career. The following sentence, which summarizes the oligarchy, is extremely striking; “There is only one political party, and that is the government party.”
It is possible to see the two most concrete examples of oligarchy in history:
One of the two important states that have left their mark on the recent history of the world is the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the other is Nazi Germany. One has been the bastion of fascism and the other has been the bastion of communism, and the Second World War passed with the bloody conflicts of these two states. The common point of these two dissimilar states is surprisingly oligarchy.
Although the Soviets were a state that was touted as the rule of workers, in fact the country was governed by the 15-member Polit Bureau, the highest decision-making body of the Communist Party. An almost identical party system was used by the Nazis as well. In other words, as Robert Michels said, the oligarchy could develop independently of the political system. It is possible to see similar examples in Greece, Argentina, Chile and Portugal until recently.
So, are there still countries ruled by oligarchy today?
As far as we know at the moment, there is no government that explicitly says that the form of government is oligarchy and that they are oligarchs. However, we should not forget the Bronze Law theory of Oligarchy. When you think about it, it is possible to say that many countries are ruled by oligarchy even today. Of course, it is not possible to talk about them by naming them one by one.
We answered the question of what is an oligarchy, a form of government in which the country’s administration is in the hands of a small group, and we talked about its place in the historical process and its effects on the modern world. Michels’ theory is scary, but seeing it real is even more frightening.
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