Blackwell Reference Online

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Along with Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923) and Robert Michels (1876–1936), Gaetano Mosca is commonly regarded as the main representative of the so-called Italian School of Elitists. After graduating in law from the university of his hometown, Palermo, Mosca combined the life of a scholar, teaching constitutional law, administrative law, political economy, and political theory at the universities of Turin (1896–1923), Milan (1902–23), and Rome (1924–33), with a political career as editor of the proceedings of the Chamber of Deputies (1887–96), as deputy (1909–19), as Under-Secretary for the Colonies (1914–16), and, from 1919, as senator. In December 1925, the 67-year-old Mosca, who had been a staunch conservative, fierce critic of the parliamentary system, and moralistic pessimist throughout his life, delivered a famous speech to the Senate opposing the bill that was designed to strengthen the “prerogatives of the head of the government” and that actually granted dictatorial powers to Benito Mussolini. Shortly afterwards, Mosca retired from active politics to concentrate on his academic work. Influenced by positivist philosophy, Mosca argued that the field of the social sciences was still in its infancy, irreducible to racial or environmental factors, and, like the natural sciences, in need of general principles which could be discovered by thorough and objective historical analysis. ... log in or subscribe to read full text