plutocracy

Noun

plutocracy (countable and uncountable, plural plutocracies)

1. Government by the wealthy.
   • Plutocracy, which is virtually supreme to-day, is to be no less condemned ; for it is not only not just, bit is nearly as detrimental to the race at large as absolute socialism would be, if adopted […]1897, anonymous author, The Revolutionary Tendencies of the Age: Their Cause and Their Ultimate Aim, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →OCLC, page 119
   • Modernity is not democracy; machinery is not democracy; the surrender of everything to trade and commerce is not democracy. Capitalism is not democracy; and is admittedly, by trend and savour, rather against democracy. Plutocracy by definition is not democracy. But all these modern things forced...1933, G. K. Chesterton, “On Industrialism”, in All I Survey
2. A controlling class of the wealthy.
   • “There are three big classes in society. First comes the Plutocracy, which is composed of wealthy bankers, railway magnates, corporation directors, and trust magnates. Second, is the middle class, your class, gentlemen, which is composed of farmers, merchants, small manufacturers, and professional...1908 February 19, Jack London, chapter 9, in The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC
   • There, indeed, he must consent to be the puppet and plaything of plutocracy enthroned on machinery, to have his ears assaulted by every variety of beastly sound that the ingenuity of modern civilization can devise, and his peace of mind shattered by the continual necessity under which he finds...1926, C. E. M. Joad, The Babbitt Warren, London: Trubner & Co, page 17