Plutocracy

Plutocracy (from the Greek ploutos, "wealth," and kratos, "rule") describes a political order in which the wealthy class exercises decisive influence over the state, whether through formal office, control of political financing, ownership of media, or capture of regulatory institutions. The term is usually descriptive and pejorative rather than a self-identification: no modern state formally calls itself a plutocracy.

Plutocracy can coexist with other regime types. A nominally democratic state may be characterized as plutocratic if electoral outcomes, legislation, or appointments systematically reflect the preferences of high-income or high-wealth groups. Political scientists Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page, in a 2014 study published in Perspectives on Politics, found that U.S. policy outcomes correlate strongly with the preferences of economic elites and organized business interests, and weakly with those of average citizens — a finding frequently cited in debates over whether contemporary democracies have plutocratic features.

Classical references to plutocracy appear in Aristotle's Politics, where rule by the wealthy (oligarchia in its wealth-based form) is contrasted with rule by the many. Historical examples often cited include:

• The Venetian Republic, whose Great Council was effectively closed to non-patrician families after the Serrata of 1297.
• The Dutch Republic in the 17th century, dominated by merchant regent families.
• The Roman Republic's Senatus, in which property qualifications structured political participation.

Modern critiques focus on mechanisms rather than formal aristocracy: campaign finance (e.g., the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United v. FEC, 2010), lobbying, revolving-door employment between government and industry, tax policy favoring capital, and concentrated media ownership. Analysts distinguish plutocracy from:

• Oligarchy — rule by a small group, not necessarily defined by wealth.
• Kleptocracy — rule organized around the personal enrichment of officials.
• Corporatocracy — rule mediated specifically through corporate entities.

In Model UN and IR contexts, the label is most often deployed analytically, to characterize the political economy of a state rather than its constitutional form.