THE plutocracy it is the government exercised or influenced by the richest class of the population.
Definition
The word plutocracy comes from the Greek and is the combination of “pluto” – wealth and “kratos” – government. That would be the "government of the rich", just as democracy is the "government of the people".
Unlike other forms of government such as aristocracy and oligarchy, plutocrats do not necessarily need to be within government to exercise power.
Through pressure groups, plutocrats guarantee laws favorable to their businesses. These laws can often be harmful to others.
Thus, some characteristics of plutocracy are:
- Concentration of power;
- Social inequality;
- Difficulty in social mobility;
- Approval of laws that do not protect the worker;
- Use of violence or coercive laws to guarantee the use of territory for certain companies.
Plutocracy is just a concept in sociology, as there has never been any plutocratic government.
This is not to say that we cannot find several examples of plutocracy throughout history. After all, the ruling class has always sought to influence the government in order to preserve its privileges.
Thus, we can say that the oligarchy it is also a mode of plutocracy. The only difference is that the very members of the ruling class such as farmers and businessmen are directly exercising power.
Several scholars claim that we are now experiencing financial plutocracy since the 2008 crisis.
In this way, we would be going through a period where the owners of banks and financial entities dictate the laws and regulations to guarantee the growth of their own wealth.
Brazilian plutocracy
Brazil may be experiencing a period of plutocracy.
After all, since the investigations of the Car wash it was discovered that groups of businessmen financed political campaigns as a way to elect their candidates and thus guarantee their interests.
Public money was also being used to obtain favors from businessmen and legislators.
read more:
- Democracy
- Monarchy
- Theocracy
- Aristocracy
- Democracy in Brazil