Is Trump’s presidential reign turning the US into an oligarchy? Or did the US fall into oligarchic rule many years ago? In episode 127 of Overthink, David and Ellie dive into what an oligarchy looks like, the dangers of a country’s power being in the hands of the wealthy few, and whether or not oligarchic rule is new for the US. They look to the ancient Greeks for ideas on which form of government is conducive to the good life and explore how Aristotle’s notion of pleonexia relates to the current state of the US. Your hosts investigate how oligarchy morphs into tyranny, and try to answer the question, “How can we resist an oligarchy?” In the bonus, Ellie and David look at the four different types of oligarchy discussed by Jeffrey Winters.

Works Discussed: 

Aristotle, Politics

Gordon Arlen, “Aristotle and the problem of oligarchic harm: Insights for democracy”

Thom Hartmann, The Hidden History of American Oligarchy

Plato, Republic 

Luke Winslow, Oligarchy in America 

Jeffrey Winters, Oligarchy 

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