ARISTOCRACY

n. noble class, privileged class

The term aristocracy refers to a form of government where power is held by a small number of individuals from a social elite or from noble families. The transmission of power is often hereditary. In common usage, the term is often a synonym for the nobility, mainly hereditary, of Europe and other parts of the world, regardless of how much political power they have.
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Noun
1. a privileged class holding hereditary titles
(synonym) nobility
(hypernym) elite, elite group
(hyponym) noblesse
(member-meronym) aristocrat, blue blood, patrician
2. the most powerful members of a society
(synonym) gentry
(hypernym) upper class, upper crust
(hyponym) landed gentry, squirearchy

(n.)
The nobles or chief persons in a state; a privileged class or patrician order; (in a popular use) those who are regarded as superior to the rest of the community, as in rank, fortune, or intellect.
  

(n.)
Government by the best citizens.
  

(n.)
A ruling body composed of the best citizens.
  

(n.)
A form a government, in which the supreme power is vested in the principal persons of a state, or in a privileged order; an oligarchy.
  

A privileged social class whose members possess disproportionately large shares of a society's wealth, social prestige, educational attainment and political influence, with these advantages having been acquired principally through gift or inheritance from a long line of similarly privileged and cultivated ancestors. The term refers also to a form of government in which the state is effectively controlled by the members of such a class. The term tends to have a somewhat unsavory or derogatory connotation today in the light of democratic theories, but in classical political philosophy it meant rule by "the best people" of the society, who were expected to feel a paternalistic concern for the humbler members of the society that would keep them from ruling in a purely self-seeking fashion. [See also: oligarchy]