MAIN IDEA:

The main idea of Jeffrey A. Winters’ book “Oligarchy” is that throughout history, oligarchs have been defined, empowered, and threatened by their wealth. Winters explores the core concept that the primary motive of all oligarchs is wealth defense.

Winters argues that oligarchs respond to threats in various ways, which leads to different manifestations of oligarchy. He categorizes these into four types:

1. Warring Oligarchy: Oligarchs are personally armed and directly involved in the coercion that protects their wealth, often acting in a fragmented and individualistic manner.
2. Ruling Oligarchy: Oligarchs are more institutionalized, accept some form of disarmament, and engage in the political process to maintain their wealth.
3. Sultanistic Oligarchy: A single oligarch or a very small group dominates, often through control of the state apparatus, blending personal wealth with state power.
4. Civil Oligarchy: Wealthy elites operate within a legal and democratic framework but still use their economic power to influence politics and protect their wealth.

Winters posits that oligarchy isn’t necessarily displaced by democracy but rather can coexist or even be fused with it. He uses various historical and contemporary examples from the United States, ancient Athens and Rome, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and medieval Venice and Siena to illustrate these concepts. A significant argument he makes is that the rule of law in many societies is essentially about taming these oligarchs, ensuring that their wealth does not lead to unchecked power.

The book suggests that understanding oligarchy requires looking beyond traditional political theories to see how economic power translates into political influence, often under the guise of democratic processes. Winters’ analysis challenges the notion that democracy inherently counters oligarchic power, instead proposing that democracy can serve as a mechanism for oligarchs to maintain and protect their wealth.

MY TAKE ON IT:

While providing an excellent analysis of the Oligarchy’s struggle to defend and retain its wealth in various circumstances of current and previously existing societies, the author, in my opinion, neglects an essential component: the driving force of the actions of different members of the Oligarchy. He just posits that this driving force is limited to wealth defense. I think that it depends on the manner in which this wealth was acquired. There is a massive difference between a contemporary Russian-type oligarch who acquired wealth by privatizing publicly owned oil production facilities and an American-type oligarch who created a new industry that had never existed before and produced previously unknown but currently hugely valuable goods and services. The defense of wealth is paramount for the former, but for the latter, it is not more than a secondary consideration. For an American-type oligarch, the ability to achieve some far-reaching dream, something like the planet Mars settlement, created with resources under his control, is much more important than the defense of this wealth. Interestingly enough, a significant share of oligarchs in America are Russian-type oligarchs whose wealth is either inherited or created by the transfer of public resources to themselves via some form of governmental corruption.

We now live through a very interesting moment in history. American-type oligarchs now recognize that achieving their dreams is not possible without fighting and winning a war inside American society against Russian-type oligarchs, of which there are plenty in this society. The outcome of this war will decide whether all Americans will live in a wealthy and prosperous society or fall into the misery of a quasi-socialist swamp.