A business oligarch is generally a business magnate who controls sufficient resources to influence national politics. [1] [2] A business leader can be considered an oligarch if some of the following conditions are satisfied:
More generally, an oligarch (from Ancient Greek ὀλίγος (oligos) 'few'andἄρχειν (archein) 'rule') is a "member of an oligarchy; a person who is part of a small group holding power in a state". [3]
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, religious, political, or military control.
Autarky is the characteristic of self-sufficiency, usually applied to societies, communities, states, and their economic systems.
The bourgeoisie are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted with the proletariat by their wealth, political power, and education, as well as their access to and control of cultural, social, and financial capital.
Kleptocracy, also referred to as thievocracy, is a government whose corrupt leaders (kleptocrats) use political power to expropriate the wealth of the people and land they govern, typically by embezzling or misappropriating government funds at the expense of the wider population. One feature of political-based socioeconomic thievery is that there is often no public announcement explaining or apologizing for misappropriations, nor any legal charges or punishment levied against the offenders.
Milk coffee politics or café com leite politics is a term that refers to the oligarchic domination of Brazilian politics under the so-called Old Republic (1889–1930) by the landed gentries of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, being represented by the Republican Party of São Paulo (PRP) and the Republican Party of Minas Gerais (PRM).
The First Brazilian Republic, also referred to as the Old Republic, officially the Republic of the United States of Brazil, refers to the period of Brazilian history from 1889 to 1930. The Old Republic began with the coup d'état that deposed emperor Pedro II in 1889, and ended with the Revolution of 1930 that installed Getúlio Vargas as a new president. During the First Republic, the country's presidency was dominated by the most powerful states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. Because of the power of these two states, based on the production of coffee and dairy, respectively, the Old Republic's political system has been described as "milk coffee politics". At local level, the country was dominated by a form of machine politics known as coronelism, in which the political and economic spheres were centered around local bosses, who controlled elections.
The Iron Heel is a political novel in the form of science fiction by American writer Jack London, first published in 1908.
The iron law of oligarchy is a political theory first developed by the German-born Italian sociologist Robert Michels in his 1911 book Political Parties. It asserts that rule by an elite, or oligarchy, is inevitable as an "iron law" within any democratic organization as part of the "tactical and technical necessities" of the organization.
The Vargas Era is the period in the history of Brazil between 1930 and 1946 when the country was governed by president Getúlio Vargas. The period from 1930 to 1937 is known as the Second Brazilian Republic, and the other part of Vargas Era, from 1937 until 1946 is known as the Third Brazilian Republic.
Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy is a book by the German-born Italian sociologist Robert Michels, published in 1911 and first introducing the concept of iron law of oligarchy. It is considered one of the classics of social sciences, in particular sociology and political science.
Augusto Bernardino Leguía y Salcedo was a Peruvian politician who served as President of Peru from 1908 to 1912 and from 1919 to 1930, the latter term known as the "Oncenio" after its eleven-year length.
Oligarch may refer to:
Russian oligarchs are business oligarchs of the former Soviet republics who rapidly accumulated wealth in the 1990s via the Russian privatisation that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The failing Soviet state left the ownership of state assets contested, which allowed for informal deals with former USSR officials as a means to acquire state property.
Politics is a work of political philosophy by Aristotle, a 4th-century BC Greek philosopher.
A diverse variety of informal political groups emerged since the presidency of Vladimir Putin starting in 1999. They include remnants of the Yeltsin family, Saint Petersburg lawyers and economists, and security-intelligence elements called the siloviki.
The Semibankirschina, or seven bankers, was a group of seven powerful Russian business oligarchs who played an important role in the political and economic spheres of the Russian Federation between 1996 and 2000. In spite of their internal conflicts, members of the group worked together in order to re-elect Boris Yeltsin in the 1996 Russian presidential election, and thereafter to successfully manipulate him and his political environment from behind the scenes.
Privatization in Russia describes the series of post-Soviet reforms that resulted in large-scale privatization of Russia's state-owned assets, particularly in the industrial, energy, and financial sectors. Most privatization took place in the early and mid-1990s under Boris Yeltsin, who assumed the presidency following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Ukrainian oligarchs are business oligarchs who emerged on the economic and political scene of Ukraine after the 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum. This period saw Ukraine transitioning to a market economy, with the rapid privatization of state-owned assets. Those developments mirrored those of the neighboring post-Soviet states after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Pro-Western sources have criticised Ukraine’s lack of political reform or action against corruption, and the influence of Ukrainian oligarchs on domestic and regional politics, particularly their links to Russia.
Putin's Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? is a 2014 book by Karen Dawisha. Published by Simon & Schuster, it chronicles the rise of Vladimir Putin during his time in Saint Petersburg in the 1990s. In the book, Dawisha exposes how Putin's friends and coworkers from his formative years have accumulated mass amounts of wealth and power. Although Putin was elected with promises to rein in the oligarchs who had emerged in the 1990s, Dawisha writes that Putin transformed "an oligarchy independent of, and more powerful than, the state into a corporatist structure in which oligarchs served at the pleasure of state officials, who themselves gained and exercised economic control... both for the state and for themselves." As a result, 110 individuals control 35% of Russia's wealth, according to Dawisha. Whereas scholars have traditionally viewed Putin's Russia as a democracy in the process of failing, Dawisha argues that "from the beginning Putin and his circle sought to create an authoritarian regime ruled by a close-knit cabal... who used democracy for decoration rather than direction."
The Geomori were a group of wealthy aristocrats who ruled Samos as an oligarchy in the seventh or sixth century BC. They remained an important political group on Samos into the fifth century BC.