(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Oligarchy? [1]

['A Pagan In Arizona', 'Meteor Blades', 'Chitown Kev']

Date: 2026-06-25  

The top .1% has stolen the national wealth. Monopoly. Living in a rental society where they own everything and we lose everything. Watching facilities we don’t want get built while our schools and hospitals close. Watching businesses break rules we all follow. Going without sufficient public transportation, employee rights, or dignified safety nets.

Are these the issues you care about? We can debate the issues and policies. What policies?

Enforce Anti-trust Law again. Fund schools and hospitals again. Rebuild the national rail system with modern rail. Enforce laws against wage theft. Enforce laws against the powerful the way we do with the weak. Give the weak a break. Many things are already illegal, but we don’t enforce them.

WikiMedia

Note on Oligarchy

A republican form of government, according to Livy, is composed of three types of government that are on their own unstable. Autocracy (e.g. Monarchy), Aristocracy, and Democracy. These are taken as initially, and potentially, good. If the Autocrat is benevolent and wise, for example, or if the aristocracy really is well educated, well meaning, empathetic, and thoughtful, or if in a Democracy, the people are of good character and well educated. But, according to the theory, each government degrades to its closely related bad form: to tyranny, oligarchy, or anarchy.

It’s noteworthy that the reason pure representative democracy is said to turn to anarchy is not a lack of organization, it does not decay into anarchy by slow loss of order. No, it’s the fact that two giant factions eventually form that absolutely hate each other which lead to sudden cataclysmic collapse. This leads to the break down of the state and norms, leaving anarchy in its wake. Anarchy leads to charismatic leaders who form new autocracies, which fail. They are replaced by a well meaning aristocracy, which fails. That’s replaced by well meaning democracies which… and so on. Whatever you think of that, the idea behind a republican form of government is based on this idea and is an attempt to fuse all three forms together.

That’s why we have representation for an executive (an autocrat, the president), representation for the wealthy (an upper house, the senate), and representation for the people (a common house, the house of representatives). The Senate is literally designed to represent the elite, which does mean wealthy. Like it or not, I’m just pointing that out, and that it’s not without reason. The reason: otherwise the wealthy get up to no good. Also, it’s just an acknowledgement that the wealth have power no matter what, and this is a way of recognizing and regulating that.

However, now, when all three branches are coopted by the wealthy, that’s obviously oligarchy, which is why that’s the title of this essay. Note, in the Roman case, and in general, all three of those representative branches are subject to election by the people, and thus, republics have always been, and only ever are, democratic forms of government. What makes them a republic is this attempt at an internal structure of three branches. It’s hoped, if the machinery continues to work, these structures in the government will rescue and restrain each other in their bad tendencies, such as indecision, having animosity for your fellow human, or being apathetic and acting like you have no skin in the game.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/6/25/800061071/community/oligarchy/

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/