Political elites
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Political elites
（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
by "Nielsen BookData"
