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A plutocracy is a country, a government, or a ruling class in which rich people hold the real power — they rule because of money, not because voters chose them in a fair way, or not only that. You can use it for the system ("a plutocracy") or for the group at the top ("the plutocracy"). It is a formal, often sharp word: newspapers and essays use it when they want to say wealth has captured . It is almost never a compliment. Though actually, people stretch it. A state can hold elections and still be called a plutocracy if the speaker thinks money decides everything that matters. That is an argument, not a lab measurement. Do not hear it as a calm textbook type next to "democracy", even though the -cracy piece is the same idea of "rule".
金權政治、富豪統治
組成From Ancient Greek πλουτοκρατία (ploutokratía), "rule of the wealthy": πλοῦτος (ploûtos), "wealth", + κράτος (krátos), "power" or "might" (via a verb meaning "I rule through wealth").
同家族的字
- plutocrata person who has power because of wealth; same two Greek pieces
- plutocraticthe adjective for this kind of rule or this kind of rich power
- democracysame -cracy, from Greek "power/rule" — here it is rule by the people, not by the rich
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
plutocracynoun/pluːˈtɒkɹəsi/
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Government by the wealthy.
- Plutocracy, which is virtually supreme to-day, is to be no less condemned ; for it is not only not just, bit is nearly as detrimental to the race at large as absolute socialism would be, if adopted […]
- Modernity is not democracy; machinery is not democracy; the surrender of everything to trade and commerce is not democracy. Capitalism is not democracy; and is admittedly, by trend and savour, rather against democracy. Plutocracy by definition is not democracy. But all these modern things forced themselves into the world at about the time, or shortly after the time, when great idealists like Rousseau and Jefferson happened to have been thinking about the democratic ideal of democracy.
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A controlling class of the wealthy.
- “There are three big classes in society. First comes the Plutocracy, which is composed of wealthy bankers, railway magnates, corporation directors, and trust magnates. Second, is the middle class, your class, gentlemen, which is composed of farmers, merchants, small manufacturers, and professional men. And third and last comes my class, the proletariat, which is composed of the wage-workers.
- There, indeed, he must consent to be the puppet and plaything of plutocracy enthroned on machinery, to have his ears assaulted by every variety of beastly sound that the ingenuity of modern civilization can devise, and his peace of mind shattered by the continual necessity under which he finds himself of performing bodily convolutions that would do credit to a professional gymnast.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。