Monopoly vs Oligarchy - What's the difference?
monopoly | oligarchy |
A situation, by legal privilege or other agreement, in which solely one party (company, cartel etc.) exclusively provides a particular product or service, dominating that market and generally exerting powerful control over it.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= An exclusive control over the trade or production of a commodity or service through exclusive possession.
The privilege granting the exclusive right to exert such control.
(metonymy) The market thus controlled.
(metonymy) The holder (person, company or other) of such market domination in one of the the above manners.
A government run by only a few, often the wealthy.
Those who make up an oligarchic government.
A state ruled by such a government.
As a proper noun monopoly
is a board game in which players use play money to buy and trade properties, with the objective of forcing opponents into bankruptcy.As a noun oligarchy is
a government run by only a few, often the wealthy.monopoly
English
(wikipedia monopoly)Noun
(monopolies)Can China clean up fast enough?, passage=It has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits.}}