Aristocracy

For the social class, see Aristocracy (class).

For other uses, see Aristocrat (disambiguation).

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In the 16th–18th centuries kings of Poland were elected by the nobility in the fields outside Warsaw.

Aristocracy (Greek ἀριστοκρατία aristokratía, from ἄριστος aristos "excellent," and κράτος kratos "power") is a form of government in which power is in the hands of a small, privileged, ruling class. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". At the time of the word's origins in Ancient Greece, it was conceived as rule by the best qualified citizens and was often contrasted favourably with monarchy, the rule of a single individual. In later times, aristocracy was usually seen as rule by a privileged group, the aristocratic class, and was contrasted with democracy.

Concept

The concept evolved in Ancient Greece, whereby a council of leading citizens was commonly empowered and contrasted with direct democracy, in which a council of male citizens was appointed as the "senate" of a city state or other political unit. The Greeks did not like the concept of monarchy, and as their democratic system fell, aristocracy was upheld.

In Ancient Rome, the Republic consisted of an aristocracy as well as consuls, a senate, and a tribal assembly. In the Middle Ages and early modern era, aristocracies primarily consisted of an influential aristocratic class, privileged by birth and often by wealth. Since the French Revolution, aristocracy has generally been contrasted with democracy, in which all citizens should hold some form of political power. However, this distinction is often oversimplified.

In Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes describes an aristocracy as a commonwealth in which the representative of the citizens is an assembly by part. Simply put, it is a government in which only a certain part of the general population can represent it.

Modern depictions of aristocracy tend to regard it not as a legitimate aristocracy (rule by the best), but rather as a plutocracy (rule by the rich).

Advocates of aristocracy

• Aristotle
• Anthony Ludovici
• Charles Baudelaire
• John Calvin
• G. K. Chesterton
• Julius Evola
• Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer
• Heraclitus
• Theodor Herzl
• D. H. Lawrence
• Joseph de Maistre
• Charles Maurras
• Arthur Moeller van den Bruck
• Friedrich Nietzsche
• José Ortega y Gasset
• Plato
• Oswald Spengler
• Alexis de Tocqueville
• Nicolás Gómez Dávila
• Hans-Hermann Hoppe

See also

• Caliphate
• Gentry
• Nobility
• Elitism
• Old Money
• Oligarchy
• Timocracy

References

• History, John Cannon (Editor), Oxford University Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-19-866176-4
• Aristocracy in the Modern World, Ellis Wasson, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.