Bibliographic Information

Political elites

Geraint Parry ; with a new introduction by the author

(ECPR classics / series editors, Alan Ware and Vincent Hoffmann-Martinot)

ECPR, 2005

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [139]-144) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Elites have been described both as the bulwarks of democracy and its very antithesis. 'Political Elites', first published in 1969, reviews the literature on the role of elites in politics. It deals with both the 'classic' elite theorists - Mosca, Pareto, Michels, Burnham and C. Wright Mills - and with many of the empirical and theoretical works on elites by modern political scientists and sociologists. It seeks to clarify the central terms of elite discourse, some of which have entered the everyday political vocabulary - 'elitism', 'power elite', 'establishment', 'elite consensus'' , 'iron law of oligarchy' and 'mass'. It explores the ways in which the descriptions of power relationships can subtly be infiltrated by the values of the observers. For this ECPR Classics edition Professor Parry has added an introduction reviewing significant new developments in elite political science.

Table of Contents

contents New introduction by the author 1 Introduction 13 Chapter one: The context of elite theorising 15 Elitism as a science and as ideology 19 Marxism and elitism 24 Chapter two: The classical elitist thesis 28 Mosca and Michels: an organisational approach 32 Pareto: A psychological approach 40 Burnham: An economic approach 44 C. Wright Mills: An institutional approach 46 The concept of the mass 47 Ideology and social control 49 The perpetuation and replacement of elites 50 Chapter three: Elitism and pluralism 57 Types of elite 60 Military elites 66 Business elites 67 Bureaucratic elites 96 Education and elite formation 72 The `Establishment' 74 Elite consensus 77 Chapter four: Empirical tests of elitist theories 84 Elite background and recruitment 86 Community power studies 92 The `reputational' approach 93 The `decision-making' approach 96 Works of synthesis 99 Conclusion 103 Chapter five: Criticisms of the elite concept 105 The scope of influence 105 Political influence: Appearance and reality 108 The nature of decision-making 113 `Boundary' problems 116 The `costs' of influence 118 Concluding injunctions 120 Chapter six: Elites and democratic theory 124 `Pluralism' or `democratic elitism'? 126 Classical democracy 130 The radical alternative 133 Degrees of democracy? 136 Bibliography 139 Index 145

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