![]() ![]() But first, let’s eliminate what we’re self-evidently not. This category can be sub-divided, and that’s where things become more applicable to the UK. Meaning ‘rule of/by the few’, oligarchy lends power to a small number of people who may or may not be linked by birth status, corporate ties, military or religious control and/or wealth. If you like what we do, please subscribe. We rely on our readers to fund our journalism. We’re not funded by a billionaire oligarch or an offshore hedge-fund. ‘Oligarchy’ has become associated mainly with Russia and its cabal of wildly wealthy men and their families, enriched by theft from the country’s people and resources thanks to their always-precarious membership in Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. The UK doesn’t fit squarely into any of those sub-categories, but has inched towards some characteristics since 2019. This brings Russia to mind, where the President and Prime Minister have simply changed places every few years, though the electoral aspect feels curiously familiar. Then there’s electoral autocracy, which looks like democracy at a glance, but institutions and norms are a cosplay façade, authoritarian methods prevail, and electoral processes are short on fairness and freedom. How far along?Ī subspecies of representative democracy called ‘electocracy’ gives a government almost total power citizens vote for it but cannot participate directly in its decisions a sub-sub-species, totalitarian democracy, is a more extreme version. This tips us along the scale towards oligarchy. That party has just, for the second time in four years, chosen its leader – and thus the Prime Minister – via an opaque system allowing unknown foreign elements a vote, or perhaps multiple votes.įor these and a myriad of other reasons, while we nominally have a democratic system, it cannot be said to be representative by any means. 32 million people voted, on a turnout of 67.3% of the registered population, 13.9 million for the Conservatives (29.2% of the registered population). But the Conservatives won an 80-seat majority in 2019 via only 43.6% of the popular vote. ‘Democracy’ means ‘rule of/by the people’, and is of course the representative system we have, in the strict sense. So, what and where are we nowadays: a democracy, an oligarchy, or somewhere in between? (The commonly-used word ‘fascism’ also doesn’t apply, as it’s a belief system, whereas fascism-like actions are increasingly taken here simply to enable other things). ![]() Some may say this echoes the current UK situation given what’s happened to accountability and transparency in recent times, but we’re really talking about a Sultan of Brunei-type situation there. Autocracy is when unlimited political and social power rests with one individual or polity, who or which is above the law and any means of being held to account besides violent outbreaks. We can rule out the first, as the UK isn’t a non-hierarchical country without laws. Let’s take the four primary forms of governance: anarchy, autocracy, democracy and oligarchy. Bear in mind that not all of these terms are mutually exclusive. It’s necessary to examine the source of power defined by each label, then how and by whom power is wielded, for what purpose. In the interests of personal responsibility and a commitment to the truth as it used to be known, I’ve explored terms of use and held them up against our country’s leadership team to see how well, or ill-fitting, they are. Mea culpa: I’ve flung about terms like ‘kleptofascist’, without knowing if they’re even real words, let alone accurate descriptors. That includes how we talk about our Government, old and ‘new’. Words don’t seem to mean what they used to.Īt such a time, language should matter more than ever to those who don’t wish to play this dangerous game. ![]() One of the most disconcerting aspects of existence today, running as the subtext below a once-in-a-century pandemic, a re-emerging nuclear weapons threat, and an existential economic crisis, is that truth is subjective.
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