Plutocracy

Plutocracy is government or effective political control exercised by the wealthy, either directly through wealthy individuals holding office or indirectly through the disproportionate influence money exerts over policy, elections and public institutions. The term derives from the Greek ploutos, wealth, and kratos, power or rule, and unlike oligarchy, which denotes rule by any small group regardless of the basis of its power, plutocracy specifically denotes rule grounded in wealth. Historical and modern societies described as plutocratic or plutocracy-influenced include the late Roman Republic, in which wealthy senatorial families dominated politics, the merchant oligarchies of Renaissance Venice and Genoa, and the Gilded Age United States, where industrial fortunes translated directly into political power through lobbying and control of the press. Plutocracy can coexist with formally democratic or republican institutions, with wealth exerting influence through campaign financing, media ownership and lobbying even where a broad electoral franchise exists, distinguishing it from more openly hereditary forms of elite rule such as aristocracy.