ARISTOCRACY

any class that is considered superior because of birth, intelligence, culture or wealth; upper class. It was duly elected and so forth, but it had been slow, slower than the rest of Europe in throwing off the various suppressive shackles of an aristocracy that no longer knew its job.

any class that is considered superior because of birth, intelligence, culture or wealth; upper class. It was duly elected and so forth, but it had been slow, slower than the rest of Europe in throwing off the various suppressive shackles of an aristocracy that no longer knew its job.