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Has the USA become an Oligarchy?

from *Orchestral Suite #1 by Steve Shapiro

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Today, America is less a bastion of representative democracy than a nation run by the desires of the super-wealthy. Aristotle pioneered the word "oligarchy" as meaning rule by the rich. He used the term to designate the rule of the few when it was exercised not by the best but by bad men unjustly.

In the early 20th century Robert Michels developed the theory that democracies have a tendency to turn into oligarchies. In his "Iron law of oligarchy" he suggests that the necessary division of labor in large organizations leads to the establishment of a ruling class mostly concerned with protecting their own power.

This was already recognized by the Athenians in the fourth century. After the restoration of democracy from oligarchical coups, they used the drawing of lots for selecting government officers to counteract that tendency toward oligarchy in government. They drew lots from large groups of adult volunteers to pick civil servants performing judicial, executive, and administrative functions.

Maybe it is time to draw lots.

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from *Orchestral Suite #1, track released June 15, 2019

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Steve Shapiro Oakland, California

Steve Shapiro has composed music for hundreds of radio and TV commercials, documentary films, infomercials and other TV programs. He was the music director at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, which produced hundreds of award-winning educational films and recordings. He has a BA in Music from Brown University and an MA in Music from the Manhattan School of Music. ... more

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