The last post introduced Professor Jeffrey Winters’ ideas about oligarchy. For Winters, oligarchy is not a specific mode of government. Rather, it is the politics of wealth defense practiced by the tiny number of disproportionately wealthy individuals who emerge in most societies. In Winters’ argument, the politics of wealth defense will change depending on the political context in which oligarchs find themselves and the specific nature of the threats to their wealth. But generally, wealth defense can be thought of in two main parts: property defense and income defense.