the.com/plutocracy
Democracy's rich cousin who bought the house and renamed it after himself.
means A society or system actually ruled by the wealthy, whether or not it calls itself something else.
from From Greek ploutos ('wealth') plus -kratia ('rule, power') — the same -cracy suffix seen in 'democracy' and 'aristocracy'. Ploutos was also the name of the Greek god of wealth, often depicted as blind, since riches famously fall on the deserving and undeserving alike. The word surfaces in English by the 1600s-1700s as a pointed coinage, built to accuse: wherever 'democracy' claims rule by the people, 'plutocracy' names the quieter rule of those who simply own the most.
- etymology
- Greek ploutos, meaning wealth, plus kratos, meaning rule
- not a theory
- ancient Athens banned extreme wealth from politics for this reason
- modern disguise
- often wears the mask of meritocracy or free markets
- key symptom
- policy outcomes track donor wishes, not voter polls