Aristocracy

The term aristocracy refers to a social elite of noble families who would often be the deciding factor in a government. The transmission of power is usually hereditary; and the term is often a synonym for the mainly hereditary nobility of Europe, and other parts of the world, regardless of how much political power they have. It is derived from two Ancient Greek words: "aristos" meaning the "best" and "kratein" "to rule". Aristocracies usually include a monarch, who, although a member of the aristocracy, rules over the aristocracy as well as the rest of society.

Definitions

Aristocracy can also refer to the highest social class even if they no longer rule directly.

In an aristocratic government, power is therefore confined to an elite drawn from a single social class, usually carrying titles awarded them by the monarch. Literally and etymologically, ‘the government of the best’. Second meaning: ‘The class of the best’. The problem is the definition of the ‘best’ and determining if it actually governs society.

For the Greeks, aristocracy was first of all a mode of government based on the rule of the nobles and the most competent. For Aristotle, aristocracy and democracy did not oppose, but complete and integrate one another according to the complementary logic of apparent opposites.

The idea of hereditary aristocracies is a constant in human societies....even in certain Communist regimes (North Korea), where hereditary power is practiced by a caste of pseudo-aristocratic parvenus, the apparatchiks.

A true aristocracy is founded not on the power of money, nepotism, or family filiations, but rather on character and ethics. Those who defend their people before their own interests, those who respond to real anthropological and cultural criteria: this is the criteria for defining aristocrats. An aristocracy has a sense of history and blood lineage, seeing itself as the representative of the people it serves, rather than as a member of a caste or club. Today every traditional European aristocratic family, almost without exception, has been dispossessed, degraded and/or ruined by socialist governments.

History

The term "aristocracy" was first given in Athens to young citizens (the men of the ruling class) who led armies from the front line with their swords up. Since military bravery was such a highly regarded virtue in ancient Greece, the armies were being led by "the best". From the ancient Greeks, the term passed on to the European Middle Ages for a similar hereditary class of military leaders who were usually members of the nobility.

In India, these men are usually of the martial or Kshatriya caste such as Rajputs and their sub-divisions. In the Islamic world, the aristocratic caste of Sayyid belongs exclusively to the descendants of Muhammad. This is usually distinguished from the ordinary use of "Sayyid" to mean 'Sir' or 'Lord'. In this sense, the Sayyid is a born aristocrat on account of his/her blood lineage to the person of the Muhammad and is usually synonymous with high morality, integrity, cleanliness, impeccable manners and deep courtesy.

In European nations aristocracy became synonymous with people who had a range of privileges as a birth-right. In the United Kingdom and other countries "aristocrat" still refers mainly, (but not universally) to the descendants of one of those families with hereditary titles, often still in possession of considerable wealth, (though not today necessarily so).

The opposition

The French Revolution attacked aristocrats as people who had achieved their status by birth rather than by personal merit (also a Liberal & socialist argument used in the 20th century), such unearned status being considered unjust by the revolutionary Jacobins.

Comparison with other government terms

As a government term, aristocracy can be compared with:

• autocracy - "rule by a single individual", such as a dictator or absolute monarch.
• meritocracy - "rule by those who most deserve to rule". While this appears to be the same as the original meaning of "aristocracy", the term "meritocracy" has usually implied a much more fluid form of government in which one is, at most, considered "best" for life, but must continually prove one's "merit" in order to stay in power. This power is not passed on to descendants.
• plutocracy - "rule by the rich". Plutocrats were usually also part of the meritocracy, and generally came from the middle classes, traders, manufacturers, bankers, inductrialists, usually self-made-men, etc. They differed from the nobility whose traditional interests and wealth came from their lands.
• oligarchy - "rule by the few". Whether an aristocracy is also an oligarchy depends entirely upon one's idea of what is a "few".
• monarchy - "rule by a single individual". Historically, the vast majority of monarchs have been aristocrats themselves. The struggles between ruling dynastic families and the other aristocratic families in the same country has been a central theme of medieval history.
• democracy - a fictitious and flawed system of "rule by the people". Democracy and aristocracy are incompatible as forms of government, due to the hereditary nature of power in an aristocratic system.

See also

• Blue blood
• German nobility
• Hereditary peers
• New Aristocracy

Sources

• Kings and Lords in Conquest England by Professor Robin Fleming, Cambridge University Press, 1991/1995/2004.
• The Nobility of Later Mediaeval England edited by K. B. McFarlane, Clarendon Press, Oxford, England, 1973. ISBN 0-19-822657-8
• Crown and Nobility 1272-1461 by Anthony Tuck, Fontana, london, 1985, ISBN 0-00-686084-2
• The Crisis of Aristocracy 1558-1641 by Professor Lawrence Stone, Oxford University Press, England, 1967.
• A Defence of Aristocracy: A Text-Book for Tories by Anthony Mario Ludovici, London, 1915. Reprint ISBN 9-781407-669281
• Aspects of Aristocracy by Professor David Cannadine, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 1994, ISBN 0-300-05981-7
• Class in Britain by Professor David Cannadine, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 1998, ISBN 0-300-07703-3
• In Defence of Aristocracy by Peregrine Worsthorne, Harper-Collins, London, 2004, ISBN 0-00-718315-1
• Born to Rule - British Political Elites by Ellis Wasson, Sutton Publishing, U.K., 2000, ISBN 0-7509-2313-X
• Peers through the mists of time by Lord Sudeley, F.S.A., Diehard Books, London, 2018, ISBN 978-164316003-0
• The Titled Nobility of Europe by the Marquis de Ruvigny, London, 1914, facsimile edition 1980, ISBN 0-85011-028-9
• The Princely Courts of Europe 1500-1750 edited by John Adamson, Wedenfeld & nicolson, London, 1999, ISBN 0-297-83653-6
• Europe in the Central Middle Ages 962-1154 by Professor Christopher Brooke, Longmans, London, 2964.