Mudabicara.com_ The political system has many kinds, one of which is the oligarchic political system. An oligarchic system is a political system in which the government is controlled by a small elite of society.
We often hear comments on social media of oligarchic governments, governments ruled by oligarchs or governments that only benefit oligarchs.
But do you really know what an oligarchy is? Now! This time, Mudabicara wants to review more deeply about the oligarchic political system, its types and characteristics. For more, see our review below:
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Understanding Oligarchy Political System
The word oligarchy is etymologically derived from the Greek olígos which means few and arkho which means to rule or rule. In terminology oligarchy means few who rule.
Jeffrey A Winters defines oligarchy as a small number of people who control and control most of the material resources in order to increase and maintain their wealth and power.
Furthermore, he said these oligarchs have the power to control capital that can be useful in increasing wealth while maintaining their social status.
In fact, early philosophers like Plato had already discussed Oligarchy. In his book Republic, Plato says that oligarchic rule is a form of decline from aristocratic rule.
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Even though the aristocratic government is led by some elite groups, they have the privilege and legitimacy of society. Another thing with oligarchy, an oligarch will rule for his personal and group interests.
Oligarchy can enter and control political systems such as democracy, monarchy and even theocracy. As oligarchy is a small group that is best for each other based on family ties, wealth, military power, politics, religion to the interests of common capital.
The existence of the rule of law or constitution will not prevent the possibility of oligarchs being able to infiltrate and enter the government.
In practice, the oligarchic political system is exactly the same as the autocratic political system. What distinguishes the autocratic system is through mutual consensus on the basis of privilege.
This means that this system requires complete state sovereignty by one or a few people. At a practical level, this system is almost the same as an autocratic political system.
Types of Oligarchy
Commander Oligarchy ( Warring Oligarchy )
According to Jeffrey A Winters, Oligarchy Panglima is a competitive situation between oligarchs. The competition that occurs is dynamic and there is no dominant and ruling oligarchy continuously.
Conflict usually occurs because of the struggle for wealth resources, power resources. The supporters below do not have a clear identity so that horizontal conflicts overlap. In fact, this form of conflict only occurs between the commanders of the oligarchs.
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The commanders of the oligarchs fought each other for power and tried to compete for power. This results in no lasting power because conflicts will continue to occur.
One example of a commander-in-chief oligarchy is the empire of Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan was always looking for other rulers he conquered. This means that the wider the territory of power, the coffers of wealth will increase. Another example could be the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and the Byzantine Empire.
Collective Oligarchy ( Ruling Oligarchy )
Collective oligarchy is a government situation in which power is dominated by noble families. We can find this situation in ancient Greco-Roman times.
They conspire together to regulate the course of the government but in fact only the interests of the group are the main concern.
In principle, this collective oligarchy is also unstable because conflicts can occur between the oligarchs themselves. The relative strength of both wealth and power makes conflicts often occur in the middle of the road.
Take Thomas Shelby, for example, when he was on the Birmingham city council. He did not allow the drug market but in fact the opium market became his family’s main business.
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What happened? conflicts between oligarchs are inevitable and victims often fall in order to maintain their power and business.
Sultanistic Oligarchy ( Sultanistic Oligarchy )
Sultanic oligarchy is a form of oligarchy that is controlled by only one person. It is able to monopolize the economy, politics and law.
All forms of power must be in accordance with his personal wishes. Law enforcement and the law itself are not able to touch the limits of their power.
This form of oligarchy forms a very strong client patron. The other oligarchs can only follow orders for their assets to be protected both territory and property. Examples of this oligarchy include Pablo Escobar and Muamar Gaddafi.
Civil Oligarchy
Civil oligarchy is not much different from sultanic oligarchy. These civil oligarchs are individual politicians and businessmen. Yet they were able to retain wealth over institutions governed by law.
The oligarchy is powerless and unarmed. They provide flexibility to institutions that have laws to preserve wealth as well as protect it.
Some examples of civil oligarchy are Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Schiff, Morgan, Bill Gates, Rockefeller, Rothschild, Warburg.
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Tame and Wild Oligarchy
The tame and wild oligarchy hints at how strong the rules can be. This form of oligarchy is based on how strong the system is built to be able to regulate and control the oligarchs.
Usually the system assigns costs to oligarchic social behavior that is detrimental to society.
Oligarchy Characteristics
After knowing the various oligarchic political systems, here we explain the characteristics of the oligarchic government system, among others.
Small Groups That Manage Power.
In an oligarchic political system, power belongs only to a small elite group. This small group can be based on wealth, military, education and family.
Usually they have both wealth and mass resources so that the distribution of their interests can run optimally and measurably.
Economic Gap
In an oligarchic political system there is an economic gap in society. Economic resources only belong to a small number of people. They have a source of capital resulting from an affair with power.
Therefore, the rich oligarchs will get richer. Worse, these oligarchs do not hesitate to justify any means to maintain their source of wealth.
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Engage in Government
The oligarchs besides those who own their capital also hold power. Their involvement in power and government is one way to perpetuate common interests.
With the ownership of capital power becomes an easy thing for them to achieve. Finally, the policies they issue are nothing but the interests of the oligarchs themselves.
Binding Engagement
The oligarchs who have the resources and financial resources will always be involved in political processes. Either direct involvement or shadow.
Their involvement is nothing but perpetuating interests. This means that when power changes their interests are not disturbed and remain accommodated.
That’s a brief overview of the young talk about the oligarchic political system, its types and characteristics. Hopefully it can be a reading reference for friends who are studying political science.