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oligarchy
oligarchy [Gr.,=rule by the few], rule by a few members of a community or group. When referring to governments, the classical definition of oligarchy, as given for example by Aristotle, is of government by a few, usually the rich, for their own advantage. It is compared with both aristocracy , whi...
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Marino Faliero
Marino Faliero , 1274-1355, doge of Venice (1354-55). As commander of Venetian forces he defeated (1346) Louis I of Hungary at Zara, and later he held high diplomatic posts. Soon after his election as doge, the Genoese triumphed over the Venetians. The new doge, at odds with patricians who had insul...
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Arturo Alessandri
Arturo Alessandri , 1868-1950, president of Chile (1920-25, 1932-38). The 1920 presidential candidate of the Liberal Alliance, a coalition of all the enemies of the conservatives, Alessandri was elected on a reform platform. During his first administration, the conservatives were able to block most ...
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caudillo
caudillo , [Span.,= military strongman], type of South American political leader that arose with the 19th-century wars of independence. The first caudillos were often generals who, leading private armies, used their military might to achieve power in the newly independent states. Many were large lan...
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Milovan Djilas
Milovan Djilas , 1911-95, Yugoslav political leader and writer, b. Montenegro. A Communist party member from 1932, he helped Josip Broz Tito organize volunteers to fight in the Spanish civil war . He was active in the Yugoslav resistance in World War II and after the war rose to high posts in par...
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Manuel González Prada
Manuel González Prada , 1848-1918, Peruvian writer and political reformer, b. Lima. One of the most brilliant figures in Spanish American letters, he was a master of satire and invective. With apostolic zeal he took up the defense of the exploited indigenous people, and in his eloquent essays...
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Lysander
Lysander , d. 395 BC, Spartan naval commander and statesman. Toward the end of the Peloponnesian War he was made admiral and built up the Spartan fleet so that it defeated (407 BC) the Athenians off Notium. Later he was responsible for the capture (405 BC) of the Athenian fleet at the mouth of the...
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C. Wright Mills
C. Wright Mills 1916-62, American sociologist, b. Waco, Tex. He studied at the Univ. of Texas (A.B., M.A., 1939) and the Univ. of Wisconsin (Ph.D., 1942) and spent his academic career (1946-62) as a professor at Columbia Univ. A controversial figure, Mills advocated a comparative world sociology an...
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Tory
Tory , English political party. The term was originally applied to outlaws in Ireland and was adopted as a derogatory name for supporters of the duke of York (later James II) at the time (c.1679-1680) when the 1st earl of Shaftesbury was proposing the duke's exclusion from the succession because o...
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Alcibiades
Alcibiades , c.450-404 BC, Athenian statesman and general. Of the family of Alcmaeonidae, he was a ward of Pericles and was for many years a devoted attendant of Socrates. He turned to politics after the Peace of Nicias (421 BC), and during the Peloponnesian War he was the leader in agitating agai...
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