Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

“History is a graveyard of aristocracies.” With this phrase the Italian Vilfredo Pareto, who introduced the word elite in social sciences, formulated his idea of the decline and fall of elites, especially the political elite. For both him and Gaetono Mosca, the second founding father, the key concept was the circulation of elites ( Bottomore 1993 : 35). Many of these early writings on elites have a moral trademark. This can be seen in Machiavelli's The Prince (1513), where he gives a somewhat cynical but insightful analysis of the behavior of a ruler, but also provided instructions on how to act. Theoreticians like Pareto and Mosca, but also the German Robert Michels (who formulated the famous “iron law of oligarchy” based on the inevitability of minority rule within the German Social Democratic Party), hold strong opinions on how elites should act and how their positions can be justified. The rightful behavior of elites is still, of course, fiercely debated in the public arena, but less so in modern social research on elites. Today, the word elites is used in a very wide sense, for instance by speaking of a “sport elite.” Nevertheless, in modern studies, elites are usually defined as the incumbents of top positions in both the public and private sector, like members of parliament or boards of executives. The focus is on the individual characteristics of these incumbents, the ... log in or subscribe to read full text