Aristocracy (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what aristocracy is, its origin, characteristics and current examples. Also, differences with the oligarchy and the bourgeoisie.

The aristocracy ruled ancient and medieval societies.

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What is aristocracy?

With the word aristocracy, today, we designate the nobility and upper classes (hereditary or traditional) of any society . It is a term of very ancient origin, with which the nobility (kings, princes, dukes, etc.) that governed the ancient and medieval societies of Europe and the East identified themselves, until finally being displaced by the bourgeoisie. as the dominant social class in the Modern Age.

The origin of the term aristocracy dates back to Ancient Greece, between the 8th and 4th centuries BC. C., when the new ones emerged cop or city-states that would later become Classical Greece.

These new communities were governed, as understood by philosophers such as Plato (c. 427-347 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC), or the historian Herodotus (484-425 BC), by the wisest and most experienced individuals, most intelligent and of greatest virtue. That is why they called their governments “aristocracy”, that is, “the government of the best” (from the Greek aristos“excellence”, and kratos“can”).

For Plato, a student of forms of government as he was, this was the best possible, although it could always degenerate into timocracy, the rule of the military, and therefore into oligarchy, the rule of a few.

However, for this philosopher, the ideal form of government (as explained in his book from 370 BC, Republic) was to grant power to philosophers, capable of achieving “the intellectual vision of the absolute Good.” Something that differs greatly from what happened throughout history with the aristocracy, whose origins were mostly military.

The aristocracy could lead society organized as a republic (just like the Roman Republic, in which the Patricians were the nobility), or like a monarchy through a king of more or less absolute power (such as the Roman Emperors, or the European Christian kings after the fall of the empire), which was inherited from parents to children or relatives of the same bloodline.

Currently, the vestiges of the nobility in Europe, as well as the kings, emperors, emirs and other monarchs of the East, are considered aristocrats. However, the absolute power that the aristocratic monarchy had during the feudal era has long been lost, once the liberal bourgeois republics were established in the West and most of the modern world.

In many of these nations, the aristocracy only occupies a representative, diplomatic or cultural position, as occurs with the current kings in Europe.

Characteristics of the aristocracy

aristocracy characteristics — The aristocracy can be accessed by birth, marriage or military merits.

The aristocracy is characterized by the following:

Grants political power to a group or social class considered “the best” that is, the most suitable to exercise power, depending on the criteria applied. In practice, this often translated into power being in the hands of the families of military heroes, especially in periods when the population required continued military protection against barbarians or other peoples perceived as invaders.
Noble titles are necessary to demonstrate belonging to the aristocracy and its privileges. These titles are added to the name to show the noble origin of the person, such as “Duke of Orleans” or “Prince of Wales.” These titles were usually associated with a specific territory, although this did not guarantee that the person who bore them came from there, since these titles could also be inherited.
Not everyone can belong to the aristocracy but must access nobility from birth itself (that is, have noble blood, patricia either blue), or earn their noble title through outstanding actions in the military field. It was also possible to “gain” the nobility by marrying a noble citizen, which many wealthy commoners did when the European aristocracy fell from grace in the late modern period.
Political power is inherited from one generation of aristocrats to another, especially in monarchical-type governments, such as those that prospered during medieval feudal Europe. This led to numerous family disputes over access to the throne, but also to many marriage arrangements to relate noble families and thus end political or territorial disputes.
As a social class, the aristocrats always distinguished themselves from workers and artisans, but also from ordinary warriors, thus forming a caste of political and military leaders born into wealth generally owners of arable land. These aristocrats were known as feudal lords during the Middle Ages.

Origin of the aristocracy

The aristocracy as a social class It arose in Antiquity, probably in response to the need for military defense of primitive nations, which created a social class of warriors or soldiers. These had to be maintained by the peasantry and artisans, in exchange for timely defense and, at the same time, guaranteeing the internal order of society.

Although in early humanity the majority of kings and monarchs were also priests and spiritual leaders, placed on the throne by the divine hand, with the passage of time and the complexity of societies, the clergy (priests) and the nobility (the kings) began to distinguish themselves from each other, and from the latter the first aristocrats would have emerged.

Examples of aristocracy

aristocracy examples — The kingdom of Swaziland is governed by an aristocracy, led by King Mswati III.

Examples of current aristocratic governments are:

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ruled by an absolutist monarch, whose power is only limited by the religious laws of the Koran (the Sharia). The King of Saudi Arabia at the beginning of the 21st century is Salmán bin Abdulaziz.
The State of Brunei Darussalam whose form of government is an absolutist Sultanate, at the head of which at the beginning of the 21st century is Sultan Muda Hassanal Bolkiah, the most recent monarch of a dynasty that has ruled the country since the 14th century.
The Kingdom of Swaziland in southern Africa, governed since 1986 by an absolute monarch, the current King Mswati III, although the spiritual leader of the country and co-regent in some matters is the Indovuzaki (“Queen mother”) Queen Ntombi.
The State of Qatar an absolutist emirate in the Middle East, ruled at the beginning of the 21st century by Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who has ruled since 2013 after the death of his father, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who in turn overthrew his father in 1995, Sheikh Khalifa Al Thani.

Aristocracy and oligarchy

The terms aristocracy and oligarchy should not be confused, especially when referring to the forms of government, as the philosopher Plato differentiated them. The aristocracy is presented as the government “of the best”, while the oligarchy is the government “of the few” .

Seen this way, every aristocracy is necessarily an oligarchy, but not every oligarchy is aristocratic . In fact, Plato viewed oligarchy as a corrupt or degenerate form of aristocracy, in which a few, regardless of their training and suitability, jealously held political power.

Aristocracy and bourgeoisie

If the aristocracy was the social class that reigned during the medieval world in the West and East, the bourgeoisie was the one that shaped the world according to its interests at the end of the Modern Age. It was the social class of merchants and capitalists that is, those who managed large amounts of money in a world that was barely moving towards the Industrial Revolution.

Unlike the aristocratic world, the bourgeois world embraced democracy and liberalism, and proposed a model of social classes that was not determined by lineage and birth, but by the monetary capacity of the people, that is, by their money.

These philosophical and cultural changes led to numerous breaks with the aristocratic monarchy, the French Revolution of 1789 being the best known of all, and ended up displacing the aristocracy from political power placing the industrial bourgeoisie as the new dominant social class.