Throughout history, most oligarchies have been tyrannical, relying on public servitude to exist, although others have been relatively benign. Plato pioneered the use of the term in Chapter Four, Book Eight of "The Republic" as a society in which wealth is the criterion of merit and the wealthy are in control. The actual literal translation from the Greek is "rule of the few". However oligarchy is not always a rule by wealth, as oligarchs can simply be a privileged group, and do not have to be connected by bloodlines as in a monarchy. Some city-states from ancient Greece were oligarchies. (Wiki)
According to Roberto Michels, oligarchy rests on:
1. the nature of the human individual: the tendency to oligarchy is rooted in several basic human characteristics (transmitting good things to children, greed for power, need for guidance and direction...)
2. the nature of the political struggle: a number of social factors gives some individuals a platform for leadership: economic superiority, historical superiority from tradition, or heredity, and intellectual superiority.
3. the nature of organization: gradually those with authority develop special expertise that sets them apart. (Keohane, p. 170)
Athenian techniques to prevent the rise of oligarchy
In ancient Athenian democracy during the Fourth Century BC, after the restoration of democracy from oligarchical coups, the Athenians used the drawing of lots for selecting government officers in order to counteract what the Athenians acutely saw as a tendency toward oligarchy in government if a professional governing class were allowed to use their skills for their own benefit. They drew lots from large groups of adult volunteers as a selection technique for civil servants performing judicial, executive, and administrative functions. They even used lots for very important posts, such as judges and jurors in the political courts, which had the power to overrule the Assembly.
In politics, sortition (also known as allotment or the drawing of lots) is the selection of decision makers by lottery. The decision-makers are chosen as a random sample from a larger pool of candidates. Sortition was the primary method for appointing officials, and its use was widely regarded as a principal characteristic of democracy. It is commonly used today to select prospective jurors in common law-based legal systems.
Despotism is a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. That entity may be an individual, as in an autocracy, or it may be a group, as in an oligarchy. The word despotism means to "rule in the fashion of a despot" and does not necessarily require a singular "despot", an individual.
Despot comes from the Greek despotes, which roughly means "master" or "one with power", and it has been used to translate a wide variety of titles and positions. It was used to describe the unlimited power and authority of the Pharaohs of Egypt, employed in the Byzantine court as a title of nobility, used by the rulers of Byzantine vassal states, and adopted as a title of the Byzantine Emperors. Thus, despot is found to have different meanings and interpretations at various times in history and can not be described by a single definition. This is similar to the other Greek titles basileus and autokrator, which, along with despot, have been used at various times to describe everything from a local chieftain to a simple ruler, king or emperor.
Colloquially, despot has been applied pejoratively to a person, particularity a head of state or government, who abuses his power and authority to oppress his people, subjects or subordinates. In this sense, it is similar to the pejorative connotations that have likewise arisen with the term tyrant. Dictator has also developed nearly similar pejorative connotations, though despot and tyrant tend to stress cruelty and even enjoyment therefrom, while dictator tends to imply more harshness or unfair implementation of law.
According to Montesquieu, the difference between monarchy and despotism is that in monarchy, a single person governs by fixed and established laws, whereas a despot governs by her or his own will and caprice.
Benjamin Franklin warned that America would likely end up as a despotic republic with docile citizens in his closing speech at the Constitutional Convention in 1787:
I agree to this constitution with all its faults, if they are such: because I think a general government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people if well-administered; and I believe farther that this is likely to be well-administered for a Course of Years and can only end in Despotism as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other.(West, p. 44)
In Alexis de Tocqueville's classic two-volume Democracy in America (1835, 1840), the author feared that America would produce a new form of despotism in the world -a democratic despotism, a term also used by W.E.B.Du Bois almost 100 years later. This despostism would be guilty of genocide against indigenous peoples and unable to create a multiracial democracy owing to the deep white supremacist practices of the country's tyrannical majority. (West, p. 45)
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Despotism
Nannerl O. Keohane. Thinking About Leadership. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010).
Cornel West, Democracy Matters. (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2004).
