From inequality to oligarchy: Commentary on The Greatest of All Plagues

Abstract

David Lay Williams's The Greatest of All Plagues is a pathbreaking contribution to political theory. Spanning seven canonical thinkers, from Plato to Marx, the book maintains remarkable cohesiveness, showing that, despite their ideological differences, these thinkers converged in a set of common concerns about inequality. In this commentary, I argue that Williams risks obscuring two connected, but distinct phenomena: “inequality” and “oligarchy.” Without discounting the latter, Williams’ genealogy focuses primarily on the former. This focus on “inequality” over “oligarchy” has important implications for the critical insights he derives from his historical archive. Because oligarchy, as a political problem, is not reducible to ethical critiques of inequality, then a critical theory of oligarchy must push farther, beyond the range of Williams’ important book.