The Return of Oligarchy
At a two-day workshop in Berlin, Andrea Binder discussed the concept of oligarchy with political theorist Andreas Kalyvas and presented research from the Powering Wealth project.
What can the concept of oligarchy tell us about contemporary political and economic power? On 10–11 September 2026, the workshop The Return of Oligarchy. Conceptual and Historical Dimensions of a Powerful Phenomenon brought together researchers from different disciplines at the Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL) in Berlin. The workshop explored the historical trajectories and conceptual foundations of oligarchic power and its relationship to democracy, state-building, capitalism and other forms of political and economic organisation.
As part of the workshop, political theorist Andreas Kalyvas (The New School for Social Research) and Andrea Binder (Freie Universität Berlin) met for the public conversation The Oligarchic Imaginary and its Logic. Their discussion traced different understandings of oligarchy in political thought and asked how far the concept can travel across time and space – and what it can tell us about contemporary politics.
The following day, Andrea Binder contributed to the workshop’s session on theoretical and comparative perspectives with Powering Wealth. How Entrepreneurial Families Shape the Energy Transition. The presentation brought research from the Powering Wealth project into the broader discussion about the organisation and persistence of economic power.
The workshop was organised by the Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL) in cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb).