Oligarchic material power and the implications for democratic systems
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Political Science, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Foster, Richard
issued: 2023-09-01T15:48:58Z
issued: 2023
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Jeffrey Winter’s return to the material foundations of oligarchy has facilitated the reinvigoration of a typology typically reserved for classical political thought. Oligarchs, he suggests, are the ultra-wealthy individuals who deploy vast amounts of material wealth for the purpose of personal wealth defence and subsequent social position. This understanding, contrary to popular scholarly discourse, implies the mutual inclusivity of democracy and oligarchy. How then can one characterise the relationship between the active deployment of material wealth by oligarchs and democracies? Typically, the empirical literature suggests that the contingencies and complexities of the policy-making process (e.g. mobilised opposition, public opinion, legislator preferences) mean that the deployment of material wealth in pursuit of an individual interest is broadly impotent, and thereby political, and by extension, democratic, implications are limited. However, the oligarchic deployment of material wealth is different: its immense concentration, coordinated deployment through the Income Defence Industry, low public salience, and minimally resourced opposition ensures that typical contingencies faced by interests can be avoided. The primary implication of this is that inclusion of this interest (oligarchic wealth defence) is empowered in the democratic system on the basis of wealth - disempowering the inclusion of the less affluent and reducing the system's capacity for collective agenda-setting.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/85768
note: OLIGARCHIC MATERIAL POWER AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR DEMOCRATIC SYSTEMS by Richard Foster B.A. (Hons.), The University of York, 2019 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Political Science) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2023 © Richard Foster, 2023 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: Oligarchic Material Power and the Implications for Democratic Systems submitted by Richard Foster in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Political Science Examining Committee: Mark E. Warren, Professor Emeritus, Political Science, UBC Supervisor Bruce Baum, Associate Professor, Political Science, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract Jeffrey Winter’s return to the material foundations of oligarchy has facilitated the reinvigoration of a typology typically reserved for classical political thought. Oligarchs, he suggests, are the ultra-wealthy individuals who deploy vast amounts of material wealth for the purpose of personal wealth defence and subsequent social position. This understanding, contrary to popular scholarly discourse, implies the mutual inclusivity of democracy and oligarchy. How then can one characterise the relationship between the active deployment of material wealth by oligarchs and democracies? Typically, the empirical literature suggests that the contingencies and complexities of the policy-making process (e.g. mobilised opposition, public opinion, legislator preferences) mean that the deployment of material wealth in pursuit of an individual interest is broadly impotent, and thereby political, and by extension, democratic, implications are limited. However, the oligarchic deployment of material wealth is different: its immense concentration, coordinated deployment through…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2023-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0435732
language: eng
degree discipline: Political Science
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Warren, Mark (Mark E.)
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85768