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Oligarchy vs Monarchy - What's the difference?

oligarchy | monarchy |

As nouns the difference between oligarchy and monarchy

is that oligarchy is a government run by only a few, often the wealthy while monarchy is a government in which sovereignty is embodied within a single, today usually hereditary head of state (whether as a figurehead or as a powerful ruler).

oligarchy

English

Noun

(wikipedia oligarchy) (oligarchies)
  • A government run by only a few, often the wealthy.
  • Those who make up an oligarchic government.
  • A state ruled by such a government.

    • Related terms

    * oligarch * oligarchic * oligarchical

    monarchy

    English

    (wikipedia monarchy)

    Noun

    (monarchies)
  • A government in which sovereignty is embodied within a single, today usually hereditary head of state (whether as a figurehead or as a powerful ruler).
  • * An absolute monarchy is a monarchy where the monarch is legally the ultimate authority in all temporal matters.
  • * A constitutional monarchy is a monarchy in which the monarch's power is legally constrained, ranging from where minor concessions have been made to appease certain factions to where the monarch is a figurehead with all real power in the hands of a legislative body.
  • The territory ruled over by a monarch; a kingdom.
  • * Shakespeare
    • What scourge for perjury / Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?
  • A form of government where sovereignty is embodied by a single ruler in a state and his high aristocracy representing their separate divided lands within the state and their low aristocracy representing their separate divided fiefs.

    • Usage notes

    Historically refers to a wide variety of systems with a single, nominally absolute ruler (compare (m), (m)), today primarily refers to and connotes a traditional, hereditary position, often with mainly symbolic power. Typically used of rulers who use the terms (m)/(m) or (m)/(m).

    Synonyms

    * autocracy * despotism * dictatorship * tyranny

    Coordinate terms

    See also

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