Twilight of the oligarchs

Abstract

The hyper-wealthy are increasingly, blatantly influencing politics both at home and abroad. Despite multiple paths to plutocrat-status, and perpetual infighting within the very top of the economic hierarchy, political economy scholarship largely treats plutocrats as possessing the same sources of power and facing similar threats to their wealth. Drawing on comparative political economy and international relations theory, this Commentary develops a typology of billionaires based on their sources of income and their relationship to state power. The value of the typology is to help us understand a new phase of international politics that is likely to be marked by the decline of autonomous plutocratic power and the rise of state-dominated kleptocracy. As U.S. hegemony recedes and the liberal economic order weakens, states are set to reassert control over capital, mirroring trends long observed in authoritarian regimes. This transition reshapes global governance: legal institutions once designed to protect capital mobility are set to become sites of contestation between states and the super-rich. Coercion and legal warfare against plutocrats are set to replace markets and the instrumental power of business as key mechanisms underpinning the international economic order.