Aristocracy . (from the Greek þD4FJ @ H, aristos, the best) It designates a form of government that arose in ancient Greece , in which power is held by a few, and in which the justification of power lies in the fact that those who hold it they consider themselves the holders of the authentic areté and, in general, they also coincide in being the holders of the lands. The aristocrats considered themselves as those who embodied the ideal of the kaloskagathos (of kalós kaì agathós, beautiful and good men, possessors of all the areté). As a form of government it arose in Greece from the 8th centuryBC with the appearance of the new polis or city-states ruled by the heads of the old genai, or families, who are both the holders of the lands, and who replaced the old abolished monarchy . It must be distinguished from the oligarchy , which, although it is the government of a few, does not coincide with the aristocracy.
Summary
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- 1 Etymology
- 2 History
- 3 Labor aristocracy
- 4 News
- 5 Sources
Etymology
The aristocracy as a governmental system is by definition the government of the best. The word aristocracy comes from the Greek, meaning aristos “the best” and kratos “government.” This implies that an aristocratic government is one in which access to power is reduced to a relatively small number of people who are normally chosen by lineage, inheritance, or by lineage.. In some cases, the aristocracy may also be oriented to intellectual questions and therefore only educated individuals with certain intellectual capacities will be considered responsible for running the government. If we stay in the political sense, we can further add that the aristocratic Definition of Aristocracy is then opposed to other forms of government such as the monarchy (the government of one person), the plutocracy (the government of the rich) and essentially of democracy (the people’s government).
Regarding its social meaning, the aristocracy is defined as one of the most important social groups within a specific society or community . Although aristocratic power fell into decline after the French RevolutionUntil almost disappearing today, this social group was always present in a large part of human civilizations. Its main characteristics were to have access to political and economic power, knowledge and cultural knowledge, the means of production and decision-making. The aristocracy always consisted of a small number of individuals in the total community as a whole, individuals who exercised great influence over governments (if they were not part of it) and who were among the richest and wealthiest.
History
The aristocracy existed in Ancient Athens, prior to the period of the Persian wars of the fifth century BC, and in Sparta, practically throughout its history. The same happened in Ancient Rome during the period of the Roman Republic , from the 6th to the 1st century BC. During the Heian period (794-1185), Japan was a de facto aristocracy, with a few members of the high nobility (mostly from a single clan, the Fujiwara) ruling on behalf of puppet emperors.
Plato and Aristotle used the word in its original sense. For Plato, “the best” were the philosophers, seekers of truth and a clear ethical system. Aristotle distinguished the aristocracy from the monarchy , the government of one, and from democracy, the government of the people. In Aristotelian theory , the few exercise power for the benefit of the whole. When they do not, the aristocracy becomes an oligarchy, a factional government. Beyond their original meaning, for Greeks and Romans aristocracies were well-defined social classes, who exercised power or insisted on managing it behind the scenes.
During the European Middle Ages there was no true aristocracy, since, although political power was in the hands of a few, each feudal lord was the absolute master of his own domain. In England the government in force from the rise to the throne of the House of Hanover in 1714 and throughout the nineteenth century , although parliamentary in nature, was actually an aristocracy, since both the king and Parliament were controlled by a few families. After the emancipation process of Latin America , in some of the new countries that emerged from it, there were some inclinations towards aristocratic forms of government, which did not prosper.
This means that since ancient times the term has been identified as a high and minority social stratum. In the High Middle Ages, monarchies did not lead to the growth of aristocracies. As the courts developed, the titles of nobility enabled new aristocrats who decisively influenced the politics of the kingdoms. In practice, historically significant cases of aristocracy occurred in Venice and Poland, since power was generally exercised by kings or, in the contemporary era, by representatives of the people.
Labor aristocracy
High, relatively small layer of the working class; it is made up of workers – often highly skilled – from capitalist countries, workers whom the bourgeoisie manages to bribe thanks to the super-profits of the monopolies.
The labor aristocracy appeared in the middle of the 19th century in England , where the bourgeoisie made huge profits by cruelly exploiting the colonial peoples. In the imperialist era, the economic base is created so that in several countries it is possible to bribe the upper layer of the working class. To effect this bribery, monopoly capital uses various methods: it raises the salary of certain workers, provides good positions for the aristocracy and the labor bureaucracy in the state apparatus and in the unions, gives them a share of the profits, and so on.
The imperialist bourgeoisie and its ideologues, buying from a certain sector of the proletariatThey try to split the working class, corrupt its conscience. When the labor aristocracy is formed, the class unit breaks down. This aristocracy and the workers’ bureaucracy, which receive a few crumbs of the enormous profits that the monopoly bourgeoisie receives, constitute the most important social support of the right-wing socialists and opportunism in the labor movement, they are the vehicle of bourgeois influence in the proletariat. As the class struggle sharpens and the self-consciousness of the working class rises, as the influence and role of the communist and workers’ parties increase, the labor aristocracy is losing its support in the masses. In the present stage of the general crisis of capitalism, the financial oligarchy, especially in countries like theThe United States , Germany , England , France , etc., along with the methods of violence and repression against the working class and the revolutionary movement, use different procedures to deceive and corrupt the working class and its organizations. As indicated in the CPSU Program :
“It resorts to bribery from the upper echelons of cooperative unions and other organizations, it increases the workers’ bureaucracy by granting it lucrative positions in industry, in municipal bodies and in the state apparatus.”
Present
Today, the term aristocracy is used in a more generic sense in different contexts to refer to a small and select group considered superior in various categories, such as the aristocracy of lineage, wealth or intellectual. In fact, the term defines a political regime in which power is in the hands of the upper classes of society. With the same name, the nobles are designated, and “aristocracy” is used as a synonym for nobility.. However, today the nobility and upper classes are designated as aristocracy, by tradition or lineage, in any society. In a broader sense, the term is used to speak of select and exclusive groups in various settings or contexts (for example, “the financial aristocracy”, the “aristocracy of knowledge”, even the ” proletarian aristocracy “, by the better workers paid).