Timocracy

Timocracy is a form of government or social order in which political power and standing are apportioned according to property ownership or wealth, the term deriving from the Greek time, meaning honor or worth, combined with kratos, rule. Plato, in the Republic, described timocracy as a degenerate stage of the ideal state, ranking it as the first and mildest decline from aristocracy (rule by the wise), a regime driven chiefly by love of honor and military ambition rather than wisdom, exemplified for him by Sparta. Aristotle used the term in a related but distinct sense, applying it to a constitution in which political rights are held by citizens who meet a property qualification, distinguishing it from both oligarchy, in which a narrow wealthy elite rules for its own benefit, and democracy, in which the poor majority rules. Historical examples of property-qualified political systems commonly described as timocratic include the Solonian constitution of ancient Athens, which divided citizens into four property classes with different political rights and obligations, and property-based franchise systems in early modern European states before the extension of universal suffrage.