Ansell, C; Bichir, R; Zhou, S; (2016) Who Says Networks, Says Oligarchy? Oligarchies as "Rich Club" Networks. Connections , 36 (1) pp. 20-32. 10.21307/connections-2016-020.

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Abstract

Departing from Roberto Michels's classic analysis of oligarchy, we provide a structural analysis of the concept based on social network analysis. We de ne oligarchy as a social network that exhibits three structural properties: tight interconnections among a small group of prominent actors who form an "inner circle"; the organization of other actors in the network through the intermediation of this inner circle; and weak direct connections among the actors outside the inner circle. We treat oligarchy as a global property of social networks and offer an approach for measuring the oligarchical tendencies of any social network. Our main contribution is to operationalize this idea using a "rich club" approach. We demonstrate the ef cacy of this approach by analyzing and comparing several urban networks: Sao Paulo urban infrastructure networks and Los Angeles and Chicago transportation policy networks.

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