plutocracy
(pluːˈtɒkrəsɪ)
Also plout-.
[ad. Gr. πλουτοκρατία, f. πλοῦτο-ς wealth, riches + -κρατία power: see -cracy. So F. plutocratie.]
1. The rule or sovereign power of wealth or of the wealthy.
| 1652 Urquhart Jewel Wks. (1834) 270 That poverty is an enemy to the exercise of vertue, is not unknown to any acquainted with Plutocracy, or the sovereign power of money. 1839 Morn. Herald 3 Sept., Of all systems of tyranny a plutocracy is the most cruel, selfish, and grinding. 1887 Gladstone in 19th Cent. Jan. 17 Let us be jealous of ploutocracy, and of its tendency to infect aristocracy, its elder and nobler sister; and learn, if we can, to hold by or get back to some regard for simplicity of life. 1898 Bodley France iv. ii. 359 The aggressive march of plutocracy which has transformed the character of English society. |
2. A ruling or influential class of wealthy persons; a body of plutocrats.
| 1832 in Fonblanque Eng. under 7 Administr. (1837) II. 205 This infernal Bill, which..is only to create a Plutocracy in lieu of the aristocracy, under which old England has flourished. 1878 N. Amer. Rev. CXXVII. 4 An ignorant proletariat and a half-taught plutocracy. 1893 F. Adams New Egypt 56 The dominant class in the one is the bureaucracy, and in the other the plutocracy. |