Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lorn bog Obama here. Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent
Speaker 1: who again is running for the Democratic nomination for president,
Speaker 1: proclaimed in a twenty nineteen speech to sixteen thousand supporters
Speaker 1: in San Francisco, we say no to oligarchy. Sanders, who
Speaker 1: warns that billionaires are buying elections and exerting too much
Speaker 1: power over the government, refers to oligarchies frequently. But he's
Speaker 1: not the only one around the web. But you'll see
Speaker 1: places ranging from Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia to Brazil
Speaker 1: and even Hong Kong described as oligarchies. Seventeen Salon article
Speaker 1: even warned of the growing power of a global uber
Speaker 1: oligarchy comprised of wealthy, superpowerful figures ranging from financiers to
Speaker 1: rock stars. And the concept isn't just owned by the
Speaker 1: left either. President Donald Trump may not have used the
Speaker 1: same terminology, but the billionaire businessman rose to power in
Speaker 1: part by railing against the elites that he accused of
Speaker 1: disenfranchising ordinary Americans. If you're not a political science major,
Speaker 1: you may be wondering what exactly is an oligarchy anyway,
Speaker 1: and do we really have one in the United States.
Speaker 1: We spoke with Braun form Sano, the William T. Bryan
Speaker 1: Shair of American History and Professor Emeritus of History at
Speaker 1: the University of Kentucky. He's written a couple of books
Speaker 1: on the subject American oligarchy, The Permanent Political Class, and
Speaker 1: Plutocracy in America. How increasing inequality destroys the middle class
Speaker 1: and exploits the poor. Formisano explained, an oligarchy is a
Speaker 1: combination of wealth and power and often tends to close
Speaker 1: off access to its ranks, pulling up the ladder. Oligarchy,
Speaker 1: from the ancient Greek word meaning few, is a concept
Speaker 1: that goes back to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, who used
Speaker 1: it to describe a society governed by select few, wealthy
Speaker 1: or aristocratic people, as opposed to rule by a single
Speaker 1: monarch or a democracy in which the great mass of
Speaker 1: people of humble means holds control. Aristotle actually didn't favor
Speaker 1: either oligarchy or democracy. He preferred a sort of half
Speaker 1: decaff cup of Joe, in which a middle group of
Speaker 1: moderately wealthy citizens controlled the reins. In the early nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 1: Philosopher Rubert Michelle's came up the Iron Law of oligarchy.
Speaker 1: It holds that any organization or society, even one that
Speaker 1: espouses democratic ideals of popular rule, inevitably will devolve into
Speaker 1: oligarchic rule, in which a few people take most of
Speaker 1: the power, in part because rank and file members tend
Speaker 1: to want someone to tell them what to do. In America,
Speaker 1: Sanders isn't the first politician to be concerned about oligarchy.
Speaker 1: Fear that an entrenched elite would seize power dates back
Speaker 1: to the error when the nation was founded. John Adams,
Speaker 1: who became the second U S President, in particular, saw
Speaker 1: it as a potential menace. We spoke with Luke Mayville,
Speaker 1: author of the book John Adams and the Fear of
Speaker 1: American Oligarchy. He said, our popular history paints us as
Speaker 1: a revolutionary society that overthrew monarchy, but revolution era America
Speaker 1: was also full of animosity towards anything resembling formal nobility
Speaker 1: or aristocratic privilege. This animosity made its way into the U.
Speaker 1: S Constitution in the form of the nobility clause of
Speaker 1: Article one, which prohibits the federal government from granting titles
Speaker 1: of nobility. What made Adams unique was a systematic manner
Speaker 1: in which he theorized about oligarchy and documented the threat
Speaker 1: that oligarchy had posed throughout history. Mayville continued relatively early
Speaker 1: in his adult life. Adams was struck by the disproportionate
Speaker 1: influence enjoyed by men of wealth and illustrious lineage, but
Speaker 1: the record shows that he became much more fearful of
Speaker 1: oligarchy during his long sojourn as diplomat in Europe in
Speaker 1: the late seventeen seventies and early seventeen eighties. In the
Speaker 1: Old World, he became a careful observer of the power
Speaker 1: that went hand in hand with family, lineage, physical beauty,
Speaker 1: and especially wealth. When he compared these observations of the
Speaker 1: Old world to conditions in the New World, he saw
Speaker 1: more similarities than differences. But Adams didn't exactly see the
Speaker 1: world the same way as does Sanders, for example, or
Speaker 1: Senator Elizabeth Warren, another presidential candidate who was concerned about
Speaker 1: the concentration of wealth and power. Because Adams worried about
Speaker 1: rule by ordinary citizens as well, almost as much as
Speaker 1: he worried about oligarchy. He thought that giving everyone the
Speaker 1: right to vote would inevitably lead to all currently held
Speaker 1: private property being divvied up and redistributed. He believed in
Speaker 1: a balance between the power of the wealthy few and
Speaker 1: the organized power of the lower classes, something perhaps it
Speaker 1: can to Aristotle's concept of a mixed ruling class. Oligarchies
Speaker 1: can develop in societies for several reasons. In a country
Speaker 1: with a monarchy or dictatorship, if a leader becomes too
Speaker 1: weak or incompetent rule, the strata of powerful people under
Speaker 1: the leader may start to siphon away his authority and
Speaker 1: ultimately may replace him with a puppet or else one
Speaker 1: of their own members. It's also possible for an elite, say,
Speaker 1: for example, super wealthy business moguls, to take control of
Speaker 1: a society because they're good at getting things done, whether
Speaker 1: or not those things are in the best interests of
Speaker 1: everybody else. And there's also oligarchy by default, in which
Speaker 1: a democracy essentially withers because ordinary people allow an elite
Speaker 1: to take over because it's easier than staying informed and
Speaker 1: grappling with complexities of governing. The question of whether the
Speaker 1: US is turning into an oligarchy, or perhaps already is one,
Speaker 1: has become a subjective heated debate back In an analysis
Speaker 1: out of Princeton and Northwestern University, studied one thousand, seven
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy nine different policy issues and concluded that
Speaker 1: economic elites and groups representing business interests had a lot
Speaker 1: of influence upon US government policy, while ordinary citizens and
Speaker 1: interest groups representing them held a little sway. They didn't
Speaker 1: actually use the term oligarchy, though news media headlines summarizing
Speaker 1: their work did, but several other scholars published rebuttals arguing
Speaker 1: that either the masses and the elites didn't really disagree
Speaker 1: that much about policy choices, or that when they did,
Speaker 1: the masses usually prevailed. Public opinion though, suggests that most
Speaker 1: people think of the U S As oligarchic, even if
Speaker 1: they don't call it that. In seen poll, sevent of
Speaker 1: Americans said that people like them have too little influence
Speaker 1: in Washington, and two percent believed that wealthy people had
Speaker 1: too much power over the government here in the U S.
Speaker 1: Foremisano said, it's not a matter of restrictions, but more
Speaker 1: closing of opportunity and diminishing chances for the middle and
Speaker 1: lower classes. Even some billionaires worried that the nation's rising
Speaker 1: income inequalities unsustainable and may endangerr capitalism's future, even if
Speaker 1: they're not quite ready to give up all their influence.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Patrick J. Tiger and produced
Speaker 1: by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production of iHeart
Speaker 1: Radio's How Stuff Works. For more in this and lots
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