The increasing skewness of the distribution of wealth and income has been debated intensely over the last few decades. Our SDG takes a novel perspective. We focus on the connections between economic and political oligarchy, across multiple countries and over time. The common thread binding oligarchs through history is that wealth defines them, empowers them, and inherently exposes them to threat. The existential nature of all oligarchs is wealth defense. How they respond varies with the threats they confront and how directly they are involved in supporting the coercion underlying property claims. Their response also depends on their capacity, or lack thereof, of collective action. These variations yield four types of oligarchy: warring, ruling, sultanistic, and civil.
Oligarchy may, at times, be displaced by democracy or fused with it. The award winning book concentrates on the United States but also considers ancient Athens and Rome, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, medieval Venice and Sienna, mafia organizations and feuding Appalachian families. The author Jeffrey A. Winters argues that the concentration and protection of wealth are central in understanding politics throughout history.
The coordinator will divide the book chapters*, as well as supplemental readings, into 10 weeks of discussion.
*The Material Foundations of Oligarchy.
Toward a theory of oligarchy.
Power Resources.
Wealth Defense.
Oligarchy and the Elite Detour.
Types of Oligarchies.
Conclusions.
*Warring Oligarchies.
Chiefs, Warlords, and Warring Oligarchs.
Warring Oligarchs in Medieval Europe.
Appalachian Feuds.
Conclusions.
*Ruling Oligarchies.
Mafia Commissions
Greco-Roman Oligarchies
Athens
Rome
Italian City-States of Venice and Sienna
Conclusions.
*Sultanistic Oligarchies
Indonesia
The Philippines
Conclusions.
*Civil Oligarchies
The United States
Singapore
Conclusions.
*Conclusions
Other Cases and Comparisons
Oligarchies and other Debates.
Jeffrey A. Winters, Oligarchy, Cambridge University Press 2011