Elites decline by failing to co-opt dangerous talented outsiders

Evidence

Pareto traces the decline of elites to the contingency of insufficient cooptation of dangerous, competent members of the nonelite, those in whom the deep-structural residues of combination (organizational skill) and force (ability and will to use coercion) coalesce. The exclusion of such men produces in them a kind of political RD. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4293

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Pareto’s elite-circulation mechanism: political relative deprivation arises from blocked cooptation of skilled, coercive-capable outsiders.
• XREF: Echoes Mosca’s elite theory and the broader ‘circulation of elites’ literature; connects to Gurr’s relative deprivation family of theories.