section_path: Forms/Aristocracy
section_name: Aristocracy
paragraph_text: Aristocracy
  
  Aristocracy is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, elite ruling class, such as a hereditary nobility or privileged caste. This class exercises minority rule, often as a landed timocracy, wealthy plutocracy, or oligarchy.
  
  Many monarchies were aristocracies, although in modern constitutional monarchies the monarch may have little effective power. The term aristocracy could also refer to the non- peasant, non-servant, and non- city classes in the feudal system.