Oligarchy: Government by the few. (Merriam-Webster)
Claims from the left that certain people, usually very rich ones, are “oligarchs” of the USA are common. The Mother Jones website boasts at the top of every article that it’s “a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs.” If the USA has oligarchs, it must be an oligarchy. That’s an odd claim, since most people think the country is a democracy. Perhaps a dysfunctional one, but still a government run by elected officials.
It’s true that Congress has grown more passive than ever, but if the US has ceased to be a democracy, what it has become is an autocracy under Donald Trump. Like Sauron, he doesn’t share power. Perhaps if you count the most powerful Cabinet members, such as Hegseth and Noem, and advisors like Miller, it’s an oligarchy. But that’s not what the oligarchy theorists are talking about. Their claims are a new version of the “secret masters” conspiracy theories, claiming people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are the real puppet masters. In older versions, it was the Rothschilds or the Jewish Bankers. Some on the American right consider George Soros the leading Jewish oligarch. The new left-wing version differs mainly in its lack of overt antisemitism (though even that has started to change in the last couple of years).
There’s a long history of claims that a small number of people without official power run countries or even the whole world. The “iron law of oligarchy” claims that all governments eventually devolve into oligarchies. The people nominally in charge take orders from them because of financial pressure or blackmail. In this scenario, the president is merely a front man. This raises an obvious question: Why would they pick Donald Trump as their puppet? You’d think they’d pick someone who’s more competent, predictable, and superficially respectable.
Conspiracy theories aren’t grounded in evidence or plausibility. They rest on emotional satisfaction. If a cabal of the rich is running America, they’re a target to blame everything on. They’re incredibly rich, so they’re not like “us.” Nobody voted for them, so the voters are absolved of guilt.
But the bitter truth is that officials elected by Americans, not puppeteers behind the scenes, are responsible for what has happened to America.
The main problem with the very rich is the way they can influence government activity by putting money in particular places. Look at decisions made by government departments, and far too often the simplest explanation for the way those decisions went is that there has been some form of bribery (call it blackmail or financial pressure if you like) at a very high level. Some of it is possibly purely commercial, but some of it seems much more like the exercise of power. At what point do you call someone using their money to exercise power an “Oligarch”?
Corruption is rampant in the current US government, and it plays a big role in many other countries. At some point the biggest players may become the effective rulers, but most of the time they use their influence just to gain advantages for themselves. Something close to oligarchy has happened at times on the state and local levels here. New York politics under Tammany Hall at its height comes to mind. The US isn’t at that point.
True oligarchies are unstable. Each oligarch wants the most power, so they undermine each other until one of them comes out on top. Russia is sometimes called an oligarchy, but Putin clearly has the bulk of the power. In the US, Elon Musk was a major player for a while, but Trump pushed him out as soon as he was no longer useful. The danger here is one-man rule.