Aristocracy

Aristocracy (Gr. aristocratia, from aristos, 'best,' and kratos, 'power') means etymologically the power or government of the best men. As used by Plato and Aristotle, it meant the government of a class, whose supremacy rested not on wealth alone, but on character and personal distinction. In point of fact, that class was a privileged one, consisting of the leading families, in which wealth and good-breeding were hereditary, and which long experience had trained to a habit of command. In an aristocracy, it was implied that the government of affairs should be for the public good, and not in a class interest. Oligarchy was a degenerate phase of aristocracy, in which the rule of the minority was founded on wealth, and conducted in its own narrow interests. Almost all countries have passed through a stage in which government has been in the hands of a privileged class, which may be called an aristocracy (when the class is markedly small in numbers, and narrow in spirit and policy, such rule is generally called an oligarchy). So it was in ancient Rome, and in the Italian states of the middle ages. In most of the European states, noble families have been powerful, at certain periods co-ordinate with the royal power, and even effacing it. The absolute states of modern times were based on the subordination of the noble families to the royal power. The king and aristocracy more recently combined to resist liberalism or constitutionalism. In modern English history, especially after the revolution of 1688, the government was really an aristocratic one for about a century and a half. That is to say, for that period the ruling power consisted of the noble families, only very partially controlled by the king, and only to a slight degree limited by the industrial class. The aristocratic element is still an influential one in the government of European countries. It is probably strongest in Prussia and weakest in France. See DEMOCRACY, GOVERNMENT.