{{Short description|Form of government, where power derives from wealth}}
{{distinguish|democracy}}

[[File:Aristotle_Politics_and_Poetics_Shimer_College_1973.jpg | thumb | right | A student reading a translation of Aristotle's Politics.]]
A '''timocracy''' ({{langx|grc|τιμοκρατία}}; from [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] τιμή ''timē'', "honor, worth" and -κρατία ''-kratia'', "rule")<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=timocracy|title="Timocracy" etymology |access-date=2008-10-25|last=Harper |first=Douglas |publisher=[[Online Etymology Dictionary]] |date=November 2001}}</ref> in [[Aristotle]]'s ''[[Politics (Aristotle)|Politics]]'' referred to a type of government in which citizens were equal in most respects, but their political participation was determined by a hierarchy based on property. Those whose wealth required them to contribute more to public expenses enjoyed greater political privileges in proportion to their means.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0062%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DT%3Aentry+group%3D9%3Aentry%3Dtimocratia-harpers Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Timocratia]</ref> More advanced forms of timocracy, where power derives entirely from wealth with no regard for social or civic responsibility, may shift in their form and become a [[plutocracy]] where the wealthy rule.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/454391|title="Towards a New Timocracy" |access-date=2024-03-11|last=Padilla Gálvez |first=Jesús |publisher=Synthesis Philosophica |date=2023}}</ref>

==Ancient Greece==
[[Solon]] introduced the ideas of ''timokratia'' as a graded [[oligarchy]] in his [[Solonian Constitution]] for [[Athens]] in the early 6th century BC.  His was the first known deliberately implemented form of timocracy, allocating political rights and economic responsibility depending on membership of one of four [[social class|tier]]s of the population.  Solon defined these tiers by measuring how many [[bushel]]s of produce each man could produce in a year, namely:

* [[Pentacosiomedimnoi]] &ndash; "Men of the 500 bushel", those who produced 500 bushels of produce per year, could serve as generals in the army
* [[Hippeis]] &ndash; Knights, those who could equip themselves and one cavalry horse for war, valued at 300 bushels per year
* [[Zeugitae]] &ndash; Tillers, owners of at least one pair of [[pack animal|beasts of burden]], valued at 200 bushels per year, could serve as [[hoplites]]
* [[Thetes]] &ndash; Manual laborers

[[Nicholas G. L. Hammond|N. G. L. Hammond]] supposes Solon instituted a [[graduated tax]] upon the upper classes, levied in a ratio of 6:3:1, with the lowest class of thetes paying nothing in taxes but remaining ineligible for elected office.

[[Aristotle]] later wrote in his ''[[Nicomachean Ethics]]'' ([http://virtuescience.com/ethics8.html#8.10 Book 8, Chapter 10]) about three "true political forms" for a state, each of which could appear in corrupt form, becoming one of three negative forms.  Aristotle describes timocracy in the sense of rule by property-owners: it comprised one of his true political forms.  Aristotelian timocracy approximated to the constitution of [[Athens]], although Athens exemplified the corrupted version of this form, described as [[democracy]].

== Thirteen Colonies ==
{{Main|Property qualification}}
In the early times of American independence only men who would hold enough property and money (except in New Jersey, where women meeting the requirements were allowed as well) could vote; there were also at times requirement of race:

* [[Connecticut Colony|Connecticut]]: an [[Estate (law)|estate]] worth [[£sd|40 shillings]] annually or [[Connecticut pound|£40]] of [[personal property]]
* [[Delaware Colony|Delaware]]: fifty acres of land (twelve [[Arable land|under cultivation]]) or [[Delaware pound|£40]] of personal property
* [[Province of Georgia|Georgia]]: fifty acres of land
* [[Province of Maryland|Maryland]]: fifty acres of land and [[Maryland pound|£40]] personal property
* [[Province of Massachusetts Bay|Massachusetts Bay]]: an estate worth 40 shillings annually or [[Massachusetts pound|£40]] of personal property
* [[Province of New Hampshire|New Hampshire]]: [[New Hampshire pound|£50]] of personal property
* [[Province of New Jersey|New Jersey]]: one-hundred acres of land, or real estate or personal property [[New Jersey pound|£50]]
* [[Province of New York|New York]]: [[New York pound|£40]] of personal property or ownership of land
* [[Province of North Carolina|North Carolina]]: fifty acres of land
* [[Province of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]]: fifty acres of land or [[Pennsylvania pound|£50]] of personal property
* [[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations|Rhode Island and Providence Plantations]]: personal property worth [[Rhode Island pound|£40]] or yielding 50 shillings annually
* [[Province of South Carolina|South Carolina]]: one-hundred acres of [[Property tax in the United States|land on which taxes were paid]]; or a [[Townhouse|town house]] or [[Land lot|lot]] worth [[South Carolina pound|£60]] on which taxes were paid; or payment of 10 shillings in taxes
* [[Colony of Virginia|Virginia]]: fifty acres of vacant land, twenty-fives acres of cultivated land, and a house twelve feet by twelve feet; or a town lot and a house twelve feet by twelve

==Other places==

=== Uthiramerur ===
{{Main|Uthiramerur}}
In the Uthiramerur inscription of the [[Chola dynasty]], which lays down the rules for who could become a member of the ''Sabha'', one of the requirements for a nominee was to possess and reside on a certain area of land, which may be considered a form of timocracy.<ref>{{cite web | title=Uttaramerur Inscription | url=https://vajiramandravi.com/current-affairs/uttaramerur-inscription/ }}</ref>

=== Decentralized Autonomous Organisations ===
{{Main|Decentralized autonomous organization}}
In decentralized autonomous organisations, a [[software]] system for [[organization]] of other computer programs handled through a decentralized ledger technology like a [[blockchain]], tokens can be used to distributed voting power. Governance is conducted through a series of proposals that voting addresses vote on through the blockchain, and the possession of more such tokens often translates to greater voting power. That phenomena can be considered a form of timocracy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Barbereau |first=Tom |last2=Smethurst |first2=Reilly |last3=Papageorgiou |first3=Orestis |last4=Sedlmeir |first4=Johannes |last5=Fridgen |first5=Gilbert |date=2023-05-01 |title=Decentralised Finance's timocratic governance: The distribution and exercise of tokenised voting rights |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X23000568 |journal=Technology in Society |volume=73 |article-number=102251 |doi=10.1016/j.techsoc.2023.102251 |issn=0160-791X|doi-access=free }}</ref>

==Timocracy, comparable values, and Plato's five regimes==
{{Main|Plato's five regimes}}
In ''[[The Republic (Plato)|The Republic]]'', [[Plato]] describes five regimes (of which four are unjust). Timocracy (Book VIII, 545 B - 550 B) is listed as the first "unjust" regime.  Aristocracy degenerates into timocracy when, due to miscalculation on the part of its governed class, the next generation of guardians and auxiliaries includes persons of an inferior nature. A timocracy, in choosing its leaders, is "inclining rather to the more high-spirited and simple-minded type, who are better suited for war".<ref>Rep. 8.547e; Cahn, Steven M., ''Classics of Political and Moral Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 2002. {{ISBN|0199791155}}</ref> The [[city-state]] of [[Sparta]] provided Plato with a real-world model for this form of government. Modern observers might describe Sparta as a [[totalitarian]] or [[one-party state]], although the details we know of its society come almost exclusively from Sparta's enemies. The idea of [[militarism]]-[[stratocracy]] accurately reflects the fundamental values of Spartan society. The only one of Plato's five regimes that he does deem fit to govern is [[aristocracy]], the four other regimes (including timocracy) are unjust according to Plato. The unjust regimes in Plato's work refer to forms of governing that lead to chaos and ultimately corruption.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://olearyzone.com/classes/philosophyS2/readings/plato/Stages06.pdf | title=The Five Stages of Government Aristocracy, Timocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy, Tyranny | website=olearyzone.com | access-date=2024-08-07}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Suffrage#Census suffrage|Census suffrage]]
*[[Forty-shilling freeholders]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*Jesús Padilla Gálvez, [https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/454391 Towards a New Timocracy], Synthesis Philosophica, 76, 2/2023, pp. 361–377. doi: 10.21464/sp38207.
*''Websters New World Dictionary of the American Language'', 2nd College Edition, p.&nbsp;1490

[[Category:Oligarchy]]
[[Category:Political terminology]]
[[Category:Government of ancient Athens]]