Michels, Mosca, and Pareto founded elite theory that indirectly influenced Gramsci
Evidence
Robert Michels (1876 1936) was a German sociologist of (originally) Social-Democratic leanings who emigrated first to Switzerland and then to Italy, where he became a naturalised citizen under the Mussolini regime. Michels is most famous for his “iron law of oligarchy” and together with Mosca and Pareto is an originator of the theory of political elites . Despite Gramsci’s evident contempt for Michels’ method and distaste for his politics, it has been argued that there was a certain indirect influence of Michels and elite theory on his own theory of social and political structures in non-revolutionary periods. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2730
Categorization
- XREF: Names the elite-theory lineage (Michels, Mosca, Pareto) whose ‘iron law of oligarchy’ Gramsci is about to criticize — connects forward to how the Islamophobia field’s treatments of power and the state build on or reject this tradition.