12 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Are there examples of oligarchic governments being removed peacefully?
What about the Carnation Revolution? Would it count?
Same with the Spanish transition to democracy. The Argentine democratic process in the 80's should technically count too, as the military oligarchy was largely overthrown. Uruguay went through the same process too. You can also make the point that a lot of ex-Communist countries largely created a new oligarchy while getting rid of the previous one through privatization.
Comment by StorySad6940 at 22/01/2025 at 14:28 UTC
9 upvotes, 1 direct replies
These are interesting questions, but I’d just reinforce the point above. You are describing democratic transitions, not the overthrow of an oligarchic political-economic structure.
As an aside, I don’t know what you mean by communist oligarchies - there were many problems with the Soviet model of government, but it was effective in preventing what Winters (following Aristotle) defines as oligarchy. Again, it seems that the problem is conceptual: we should avoid conflating oligarchy and authoritarianism.