So... America is an oligarchy now

[The Isolationist State Of Islam]

Lenin was American?

Yes. He was from West Philadelphia born and raised. Again not what was being insinuated

On the playground was were he spent most of his days

[Parhe]

The United States is more of an elite democracy rather than a pure oligarchy: the people have what are still free votes, but in practice they are only given a choice between members of an elite class.

It should be evident just by looking at the cost of campaigning for a presidential nomination that the title of POTUS is really only open to the wealthy elite. Same goes for most other positions.

It's almost as if the proletariat and not the parasite class should command the state

The post only mentions the poster's view of how it isn't. Doesn't exactly say anything in support of or against either that or what you are proposing.

[Daburuetchi]

It's almost as if the proletariat and not the parasite class should command the state

The post only mentions the poster's view of how it isn't. Doesn't exactly say anything in support of or against either that or what you are proposing.

No shit but the logical conclusion to acknowledging we are rulled by a small economic clique is soaking the rich

[Krasny-Volny]

The world is an oligarchy.

There will always be bastards and multinational corporations with too much money and power for their own good who hold disproportionate political influence.

[Russo-Byzantine Empire]

The post only mentions the poster's view of how it isn't. Doesn't exactly say anything in support of or against either that or what you are proposing.

No shit but the logical conclusion to acknowledging we are rulled by a small economic clique is soaking the rich

It's not soaking the rich from the bottom though, it's soaking them from the top. The whole reason oligarchies exist is because elections gave the rich the chance to buy our leaders. What we need is a monarchy, who can't be bought by the wealthy elite because the monarch doesn't owe their power to them.

[The Lone Alliance]

SNIP

The US has been like an oligarchy for ages, hell it's a near plutocracy now.
So it's more like 1776-187X

[The Empire of Pretantia]

No shit but the logical conclusion to acknowledging we are rulled by a small economic clique is soaking the rich

It's not soaking the rich from the bottom though, it's soaking them from the top. The whole reason oligarchies exist is because elections gave the rich the chance to buy our leaders. What we need is a monarchy, who can't be bought by the wealthy elite because the monarch doesn't owe their power to them.

*Snorts*

[Russo-Byzantine Empire]

It's not soaking the rich from the bottom though, it's soaking them from the top. The whole reason oligarchies exist is because elections gave the rich the chance to buy our leaders. What we need is a monarchy, who can't be bought by the wealthy elite because the monarch doesn't owe their power to them.

*Snorts*

*takes to rehab for ingesting of Heroin through the nose*

[The Empire of Pretantia]

*Snorts*

*takes to rehab for ingesting of Heroin through the nose*

I love it when Monarchists pretend their political system of choice is somehow immune or worse, distinguishable from other forms of government.

[Kraylandia]

No, it's not.

A riveting and thorough debunking

A thorough debunking was not needed, to suggest that US is an oligarchy is absolutely ridiculous.

[Scandinavian Nations]

---dp---

[Scandinavian Nations]

The US has been an oligarchy from the day Columbus stepped foot on its coast. The captains were the oligarchs, everyone else were their tools. From that day on, the same system only kept developing into a more complex, tiered oligarchy.

[Pulau Singapura]

"ManyOnly a few dictatorships are oligarchies.
ManyMajority of democracies are oligarchies.
Therefore, many dictatorships are democraciesdictatorships are better than democracies."

-said no one ever. I made these words up.

FTFY

I live in an overly-democratic poor archipelago, that is suffering from oligarchy too, and in a case worse than the USA, as these Filipino oligarchs hinder the progress of the country.

[Russo-Byzantine Empire]

*takes to rehab for ingesting of Heroin through the nose*

I love it when Monarchists pretend their political system of choice is somehow immune or worse, distinguishable from other forms of government.

Oh, it's not immune. You don't hear anything about the Nordics, Benelux, or the UK being oligarchies, though, do you?

[The Empire of Pretantia]

I love it when Monarchists pretend their political system of choice is somehow immune or worse, distinguishable from other forms of government.

Oh, it's not immune. You don't hear anything about the Nordics, Benelux, or the UK being oligarchies, though, do you?

I don't live their, so I wouldn't know. Though I don't see how UK counts seeing as the queen isn't in charge. Unless yo7 forgot the UK is a parliamentary democracy?

[The Eastern Hegemony]

1. OP needs some factual backing
2. A link or two wouldn't hurt, if you have anything pointing towards a government shift for the worse
3. Oligarchy, democracy... same thing. Both end with a 'y', and both may involve voting (hey, a council of warlords that votes on how to oppress the people next still counts as a voting base)

[The Empire of Pretantia]

1. OP needs some factual backing
2. A link or two wouldn't hurt, if you have anything pointing towards a government shift for the worse
3. Oligarchy, democracy... same thing. Both end with a 'y', and both may involve voting (hey, a council of warlords that votes on how to oppress the people next still counts as a voting base)

"Next on the agenda we have the immigration crisis within our great nation. Volunteers for a warhost to full these pigs?"

[Krasny-Volny]

*takes to rehab for ingesting of Heroin through the nose*

I love it when Monarchists pretend their political system of choice is somehow immune or worse, distinguishable from other forms of government.

I love it when detox patients are this feisty and thankless.

[Purpelia]

Well of course it's an oligarchy. What gave it away? The part where your election system has a built in way for members of an appointed elite to override the will of the people at measure? Or maybe the part where certain wealthy families spawn senators and even presidents on a regular basis? Seriously like it's not "now". Your system was designed to be an oligarchy from the start.

[Russo-Byzantine Empire]

Oh, it's not immune. You don't hear anything about the Nordics, Benelux, or the UK being oligarchies, though, do you?

I don't live their, so I wouldn't know. Though I don't see how UK counts seeing as the queen isn't in charge. Unless yo7 forgot the UK is a parliamentary democracy?

Oh, I'm not opposed to parliamentary democracy, just to Republics. It is a historical fact, however, that Absolutism to Constitutionalism leads to less blood than Absolutism to Republicanism. But we're getting off topic. I have a question to all Communists here: have you ever actually met a rich person? Surely you must have, to so brazenly generalize them as all being evil oppressors. Or maybe it's just that you don't know what you're talking about?

[HMS Vanguard]

Ability to organise and lead people is a technical skill and, like all technical skills, is unevenly distributed and only partially learnable. All countries are oligarchies run by that part of their population that has considerable organisational skill. Just as most people who learn mathematics in school make no contribution to the further development of mathematics, most people who learn how to vote in school have only illusory influence over the management of their government.

This is not to be lamented. A mathematics developed by the average high school graduate would not have taken us to the moon.

[Russo-Byzantine Empire]

Ability to organise and lead people is a technical skill and, like all technical skills, is unevenly distributed and only partially learnable. All countries are oligarchies run by that part of their population that has considerable organisational skill. Just as most people who learn mathematics in school make no contribution to the further development of mathematics, most people who learn how to vote in school have only illusory influence over the management of their government.

This is not to be lamented. A mathematics developed by the average high school graduate would not have taken us to the moon.

But oligarchies are by definition not meritocracies, they are the rich of society exploiting it for their own profits, not for the benefit of society.

[Scandinavian Nations]

But oligarchies are by definition not meritocracies, they are the rich of society exploiting it for their own profits, not for the benefit of society.

The poor man wonders why he is poor. The rich man knows why he is rich.

[Lady Scylla]

Ignoring the rather useless ideological back and forth.

The Iron Law of Oligarchy basically states, that over time, a democratic system will turn into an Oligarchy, where a sort of "leadership" elite will be in charge of most policies, and public power and influence in these policies becomes more and more negligible.

A study recently, has poked holes in the US' alleged democracy, by suggesting that the US has become an oligarchy,

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746

(

http://journals.cambridge.org/download. ... 06d5ccf9fa

https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/def ... cs.doc.pdf

)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy#United_States

The study mostly analyzed the popularity or public influence behind policy decisions, versus the State implementing or pushing policies that were generally unpopular with large parts of the population. Do I necessarily agree with it? I'm not too certain. Generally, I viewed the US more as an ochlocracy, where majority rules, and the voices of the minority really don't matter. The study has opened up a different door of consideration, for me, however. Which, has put me more on the fence about what the US would actually resemble.

Which, given, I don't believe the US is exceptional in any case, and find such beliefs rather irrational. The country behaves like any other country, really. So treating it as some exceptional case and a beacon of freedom and democracy, I find, to be void of any form of rationality. The US, like every other nation-state, is in the business of itself, sure it can do great things, but it hasn't been any less of a twat to its neighbours than any other nation-state.

[Lady Scylla]

Ability to organise and lead people is a technical skill and, like all technical skills, is unevenly distributed and only partially learnable. All countries are oligarchies run by that part of their population that has considerable organisational skill. Just as most people who learn mathematics in school make no contribution to the further development of mathematics, most people who learn how to vote in school have only illusory influence over the management of their government.

This is not to be lamented. A mathematics developed by the average high school graduate would not have taken us to the moon.

But oligarchies are by definition not meritocracies, they are the rich of society exploiting it for their own profits, not for the benefit of society.

ol·i·gar·chy
ˈäləˌɡärkē/
noun
a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution.

It isn't solely limited to a "rich elite" (or by actual definition, a Plutocracy)