mindmap root((处处寡头多数虚荣乏味)) oligarchy is applicable to any government or state in which power is openly or virtually in the hands of a favored few: :the many ~ies of ancient Greece. aristocracy basically and historically implies the rule of the best citizens, but in its more usual use it implies power vested in a privileged class, often regarded as superior in birth and breeding: a revolution that toppled the ~. plutocracy implies concentration of power in the hands of the wealthy and is regularly derogatory: successful attempts to prevent the state from becoming a ~.