An Oligarchal Tyranny?

Street labor in Mexico City. A literal illustration of what some are forced to make a living in Mexico.

I've been re-reading Robert D. Kaplan's Empire Wilderness in which the author describes what he believes the United States is transforming into: an interconnected globalised network of city states united and governed by concerns of economy and growth in which the poor are left behind while the better able move to suburban gaited communities isolating themselves from the "threatening and unsightly poor" while at the same time avoiding the moral obligation to be their brother's keeper. A picture that better outlines the socioeconomic divide in places like Brazil, Teheran, or even Mexico which the author describes as an oligarchal tyranny --a depiction I find hard to disagree with after having lived here for near 20 years. Be it the U.S.A., Brazil, or Mexico, what can be said of democracies that not only fail to provide for their most deprived citizens but simply don't care to?