OLĬGARCHĬA

( ὀλιγαρχια ), the government of a few: a term applied to that perversion ( παρέκβασις ) of an Aristocrat i a into which the latter pa ed, when, owing to the rise of the dem us [ Democrat i a ], and the vanishing of those substantial grounds of pre-eminence which rendered an Aristocrat i a not unjust, the rule of the dominant portion of the community became the ascendancy of a faction, whose efforts were directed chiefly towards their own aggrandisement. The preservation of power under such circumstances of course depended chiefly upon the po e ion of superior wealth and the other appliances of wealth which were its concomitants. Thus it came to be regarded as e entially characteristic of an oligarchy, that the main distinction between the dominant faction and the subject portion of the community was the po e ion of greater wealth on the part of the former. Hence the term Oligarch i a would not have been applied, if a small section of the community, consisting of poor persons, by any means got the reins of government into their hands.