plutocracy

• plousiocracy, ploutocracy

From Ancient Greek πλουτοκρατία (ploutokratía, “rule of the wealthy”), from πλουτοκρατέω (ploutokratéō, “I rule through wealth”), from πλοῦτος (ploûtos, “wealth”) + κρατέω (kratéō, “I rule”) (from κράτος (krátos, “power”, “might”)).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pluːˈtɒkɹəsi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /pluːˈtɑːkɹəsi/

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plutocracy (countable and uncountable, plural plutocracies)

1. Government by the wealthy.
2. A controlling class of the wealthy.

• 1933 — G. K. Chesterton, All I Survey, Essay XXIII: On Industrialism

  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 themselves into the world at about the time, or shortly after the time, when great idealists like Rousseau and Jefferson happened to have been thinking about the democratic ideal of democracy.

• argentocracy (nonce word)
• tycoonocracy (uncommon)

• plutocrat
• plutocratic
• plutodemocracy
• plutonomy