This noun ('ah luh gar kee) means government by the few; a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes.
This word is used in a book on Shanghai, as excerpted on CNN:
"Until the Second World War this alien oligarchy effectively controlled the destiny of Shanghai. If the French Concession was pre-revolutionary France in exotic miniature, the International Settlement was an oriental echo of England before the Reform Act."
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