What is a timocracy government?

Timocracy is a form of government where only property owners can participate in the activities and formation of the government. The word derives from the Greek words timo-, meaning "honour" or "worth", and -kratia meaning "rule" (as in government).

Solon introduced the ideas of timokratia as a graded oligarchy in his "Constitution for Athens" (early 6th century BC). His allotted political rights and economic responsibilties depending on membership of one of four tiers of the population.

He defined these tiers by measuring how many bushels of produce each man could produce in a year, namely: "Pentakosiomedimnoi" ("500-bushel men", those who produced 500 bushels of produce per year); "Hippeis" (knights, those who could equip themselves and one cavalry horse for war, valued at 300 bushels per year); "Zeugitai" (tillers, owners of at least one pair of beasts of burden, valued at 200 bushels per year) and "Thetes" (manual laborers).

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.

In the early years of the American Republic, a similar concept was adopted, as only property owners were allowed to be citizens until the enlargement of voting rights to all white men, then all men, and finally women.