Elite theory
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philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
,
political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...
and
sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...
, elite theory is a theory of the
state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...
that seeks to describe and explain power relations in
society A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...
. In its contemporary form in the 21st century, elite theory posits that (1) power in larger societies, especially
nation-state A nation state, or nation-state, is a political entity in which the state (a centralized political organization ruling over a population within a territory) and the nation (a community based on a common identity) are (broadly or ideally) con ...
s, is concentrated at the top in relatively small
elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (, from , to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful or wealthy people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the ...
s; (2) power "flows predominantly in a top-down direction from elites to non-elites"; and (3) "the characteristics and actions of elites are crucial determinants of major political and social outcomes". (At pp. 12-13.) The concept of the "elite" in this context goes beyond
politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...
s or other leaders who wield the formal power of the state. Through positions in
corporation A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...
s, influence over policymaking networks, control over the financial support of foundations, and positions with
think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...
s,
universities A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
, or other policy-discussion groups, members of the elite exert significant power over corporate, government, and societal decisions. The basic characteristics of this theory are that power is concentrated, the elites are unified, the non-elites are diverse and powerless, elites' interests are unified due to common backgrounds and positions, and the defining characteristic of power is institutional position. Elite theory opposes pluralism, a tradition that emphasizes how multiple major social groups and interests contribute to representative political outcomes that reflect the collective needs of society. Even when entire groups are ostensibly completely excluded from the state's traditional networks of power (on the basis of criteria such as gender, nobility, race, religion or poverty), elite theory recognizes that "counter-elites" frequently develop within such excluded groups. Negotiations between such disenfranchised groups and the state can be analyzed as negotiations between elites and counter-elites. A major problem, in turn, is the ability of elites to co-opt counter-elites. Democratic systems function on the premise that voting behavior has a direct and noticeable effect on policy outcomes, and that these outcomes are preferred by the largest portion of voters. However, a study in 2014 correlated voters' preferences to policy outcomes and found that the statistical correlation between the two is heavily dependent on the income brackets of the voting groups. At the lowest income bracket sampled, the correlation coefficient reached zero, whereas the highest income bracket returned a correlation above 0.6. The conclusion was that there is a strong, linear correlation between the income of voters and how often their policy preferences become reality. The causation for this correlation has not yet been proven in subsequent studies, but it is an area ripe for further research.


History


Ancient perspective

Polybius Polybius (; , ; ) was a Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covered the period of 264–146 ...
(≈150 B.C.) referred to (what we call today) Elite Theory as simply "autocracy". He posited that all three originating forms of sources of political power—one man (monarchy/executive), few men (aristocracy), many men (democracy)—would eventually be corrupted into a debased form of itself if not balanced in a "mixed government". Monarchy would become "tyranny", democracy would become "mob rule", and rule by elites (aristocracy) would become "oligarchy".
Polybius Polybius (; , ; ) was a Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covered the period of 264–146 ...
effectively said this is due to a failure to properly apply
checks and balances The separation of powers principle functionally differentiates several types of state power (usually law-making, adjudication, and execution) and requires these operations of government to be conceptually and institutionally distinguishabl ...
between the three mentioned forms as well as subsequent political institutions.


Italian school of elitism

Vilfredo Pareto Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto (; ; born Wilfried Fritz Pareto; 15 July 1848 – 19 August 1923) was an Italian polymath, whose areas of interest included sociology, civil engineering, economics, political science, and philosophy. He made severa ...
(1848–1923), Gaetano Mosca (1858–1941) and
Robert Michels Robert Michels (; 9 January 1876 – 3 May 1936) was a German-born Italian sociologist who contributed to elite theory by describing the political behavior of intellectual elites. He belonged to the Italian school of elitism. He is best kno ...
(1876–1936) were cofounders of the Italian school of elitism, which influenced subsequent elite theory in the Western tradition. The outlook of the Italian school of elitism is based on two ideas: # Power lies in positions of authority in key economic and political institutions. # The psychological difference that sets elites apart is that they have personal resources, for instance intelligence and skills, and a vested interest in the government; whilst the rest are incompetent and do not have the capabilities to govern themselves, the elite are resourceful and strive to make the government work. For, in reality, the elite would have the most to lose in a failed state.


Vilfredo Pareto

Pareto emphasized the psychological and intellectual superiority of elites, believing that they were the highest accomplishers in any field. He discussed the existence of two types of elites: # Governing elites # Non-governing elites He also extended the idea that a whole elite can be replaced by a new one and how one can circulate from being elite to non-elite.


Gaetano Mosca

Mosca emphasized the sociological and personal characteristics of elites. He said elites are an organized minority and that the masses are an unorganized majority. The ruling class is composed of the ruling elite and the sub-elites. He divides the world into two groups: # Political class # Non-Political class Mosca asserted that elites have intellectual, moral, and material superiority that is highly esteemed and influential.


Robert Michels

Sociologist Michels developed the iron law of oligarchy where, he asserts, social and political organizations are run by a few individuals, and social organization and labor division are key. He believed that all organizations were elitist and that elites have three basic principles that help in the bureaucratic structure of political organization: # Need for leaders, specialized staff, and facilities # Utilization of facilities by leaders within their organization # The importance of the psychological attributes of the leaders


Contemporary elite theorists

Modern elite theory is distinguished from classical or
normative Normativity is the phenomenon in human societies of designating some actions or outcomes as good, desirable, or permissible, and others as bad, undesirable, or impermissible. A Norm (philosophy), norm in this sense means a standard for evaluatin ...
elitism as articulated by Mosca, Pareto and Michels in that it attempts to merely present a "empirical picture of the way human societies operate", and is not "closely linked to a particular view" of how those societies should be organized.


Elmer Eric Schattschneider

Elmer Eric Schattschneider offered a strong critique of the American
political theory Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and legitimacy of political institutions, such as states. This field investigates different forms of government, ranging from d ...
of pluralism: Rather than an essentially democratic system in which the many competing interests of
citizens Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality; ...
are amply represented, if not advanced, by equally many competing interest groups, Schattschneider argued that the pressure system is biased in favor of "the most educated and highest-income members of society", and showed that "the difference between those who participate in interest group activity and those who stand at the sidelines is much greater than between voters and nonvoters". In ''The Semisovereign People'', Schattschneider argued that the scope of the pressure system is really quite small: The "range of organized, identifiable, known groups is amazingly narrow; there is nothing remotely universal about it" and the "business or upper-class bias of the pressure system shows up everywhere". He said that the "notion that the pressure system is automatically representative of the whole community is a myth" and, instead, the "system is skewed, loaded and unbalanced in favor of a fraction of a minority".


C. Wright Mills

Mills published his book '' The Power Elite'' in 1956, in which he claimed to present a new sociological perspective on systems of power in the United States. He identified a triumvirate of power groups—political, economic and military—which form a distinguishable, although not unified, power-wielding body in the United States. Mills proposed that this group had been generated through a process of rationalisation at work in all advanced industrial societies whereby the mechanisms of power became concentrated, funneling overall control into the hands of a limited, somewhat corrupt group. This reflected a decline in politics as an arena for debate and relegation to a merely formal level of discourse. This macro-scale analysis sought to point out the degradation of democracy in "advanced" societies and the fact that power generally lies outside the boundaries of elected representatives. A main influence for the study was Franz Leopold Neumann's book, ''Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism, 1933–1944'', a study of how Nazism came to power in the German democratic state. It provided the tools to analyse the structure of a political system and served as a warning of what could happen in a modern capitalistic democracy.


Floyd Hunter

The elite theory analysis of power was also applied on the micro scale in community power studies such as that by Floyd Hunter (1953). Hunter examined in detail the power of relationships evident in his "Regional City" looking for the "real" holders of power rather than those in obvious official positions. He posited a structural-functional approach that mapped hierarchies and webs of interconnection within the city—mapping relationships of power between businessmen, politicians, clergy etc. The study was promoted to debunk current concepts of any "democracy" present within urban politics and reaffirm the arguments for a true
representative democracy Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy or electoral democracy, is a type of democracy where elected delegates represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy. Nearly all modern Western-style democracies func ...
. This type of analysis was also used in later, larger scale, studies such as that carried out by M. Schwartz examining the power structures within the sphere of the corporate elite in the United States.


G. William Domhoff

In his controversial book, ''
Who Rules America? ''Who Rules America?'' is a book by research psychologist and sociologist G. William Domhoff, Ph.D., published in 1967 as a best-seller (#12). ''WRA'' is frequently assigned as a sociology textbook, documenting the dangerous concentration of po ...
'' (1967), G. William Domhoff researched local and national decision-making process networks, seeking to illustrate the power structure in the United States. He asserted, much like Hunter, that an elite class which owns and manages large income-producing properties (like banks and corporations) dominate the American power structure both politically and economically.


James Burnham

Burnham's early work '' The Managerial Revolution'' sought to express the movement of all functional power into the hands of managers rather than politicians or businessmen— separating ownership and control.


Robert D. Putnam

Putnam saw the development of technical and exclusive knowledge among administrators and other specialist groups as a mechanism that strips power from the
democratic process Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power In political science, power is the ability to influence or direct the actions, beliefs, or conduct of actors. Power does not exc ...
and slips it to the advisors and specialists who influence the
decision process In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be either rati ...
.
"If the dominant figures of the past hundred years have been the entrepreneur, the businessman, and the industrial executive, the ‘new men’ are the scientists, the mathematicians, the economists, and the engineers of the new intellectual technology."


Thomas R. Dye

Dye Juan de Guillebon, better known by his stage name DyE, is a French musician. He is known for the music video of the single "Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical ele ...
in his book ''Top Down Policymaking'' argues that U.S.
public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...
does not result from the "demands of the people", but rather from elite consensus found in
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
–based non-profit foundations,
think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...
s, special-interest groups, and prominent
lobbying Lobbying is a form of advocacy, which lawfully attempts to directly influence legislators or government officials, such as regulatory agency, regulatory agencies or judiciary. Lobbying involves direct, face-to-face contact and is carried out by va ...
and
law firm A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise consumer, clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and Obligation, respon ...
s. Dye's thesis is further expanded upon in his works: ''The Irony of Democracy'', ''Politics in America,'' ''Understanding Public Policy'', and ''Who's Running America?''.


George A. Gonzalez

In his book ''Corporate Power and the Environment'', George A. Gonzalez writes on the power of U.S. economic elites to shape environmental policy for their own advantage. In ''The Politics of Air Pollution: Urban Growth'', ''Ecological Modernization and Symbolic Inclusion'' and in ''Urban Sprawl, Global Warming, and the Empire of Capital'', Gonzalez employs elite theory to explain the interrelationship between
environmental policy Environmental policy is the commitment of an organization or government to the laws, regulations, and other policy mechanisms concerning environmental issues. These issues generally include air and water pollution, waste management, ecosystem ...
and
urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted ...
in America. His most recent work, ''Energy and Empire: The Politics of Nuclear and Solar Power in the United States'' demonstrates that economic elites tied their advocacy of the nuclear energy option to post-1945 American foreign policy goals, while at the same time these elites opposed government support for other forms of energy such as solar, that cannot be dominated by one nation.


Ralf Dahrendorf

In his book ''Reflections on the Revolution in Europe'', Ralf Dahrendorf asserts that, due to the advanced level of competence required for political activity, a political party tends to become, actually, a provider of "political services", that is, the administration of local and governmental public offices. During the electoral campaign, each party tries to convince voters it is the most suitable for managing the state's business. The logical consequence of this would be to acknowledge this character and to openly register the parties as service providing companies. In this way, the ruling class would include the members and associates of legally acknowledged companies and the "class that is ruled" would select, by election, the state administration company that best fits its interests.


Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page

In their
statistical analysis Statistical inference is the process of using data analysis to infer properties of an underlying probability distribution.Upton, G., Cook, I. (2008) ''Oxford Dictionary of Statistics'', OUP. . Inferential statistical analysis infers properties of ...
of 1,779 policy issues, professors Martin Gilens and
Benjamin Page Benjamin Ingrim Page (born 17 September 1940) is the Gordon S. Fulcher professor of decision making at Northwestern University. His interests include American politics and U.S. foreign policy, with particular interests in public opinion and policy ...
found that "economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence." Critics cited by Vox.com argued, using the same dataset, that when the rich and the middle class disagreed, the rich got their preferred outcome 53 percent of the time and the middle class got what they wanted 47 percent of the time. Some critics disagree with Gilens and Pages' headline conclusion, but do believe that the dataset confirms that "the rich and middle (class) are effective at blocking policies that the poor want".


Thomas Ferguson

The political scientist Thomas Ferguson's book
Investment Theory of Party Competition The Investment theory of party competition is a political theory developed by Thomas Ferguson (academic), Thomas Ferguson, Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The theory focuses on how business elites, ...
can be thought of as an elite theory. Set out most extensively in his 1995 book, ''Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-driven Political Systems'', the theory begins by noting that in modern political systems the cost of acquiring political awareness is so great that no citizen can afford it. As a consequence, these systems tend be dominated by those who can, most typically elites and corporations. These elites then seek to influence politics by 'investing' in the parties or policies they support through political contributions and other means such as endorsements in the media.


See also

*
Democratic deficit A democratic deficit (or democracy deficit) occurs when ostensibly- democratic organizations or institutions (particularly governments) fall short of fulfilling the principles of democracy in their practices or operation. Representative and linked ...
* Elite analysis *
Elitism Elitism is the notion that individuals who form an elite — a select group with desirable qualities such as intellect, wealth, power, physical attractiveness, notability, special skills, experience, lineage — are more likely to be construc ...
* Iron law of oligarchy *
Mass society Mass society is a concept that describes modern society as a monolithic force and yet a disaggregate collection of individuals. The term is often used pejoratively to refer to a society in which bureaucracy and impersonal institutions have replac ...
*
Positive political theory Positive political theory (PPT), explanatory political theory, or formal theory is the study of politics using formal methods such as social choice theory, game theory, and statistical analysis. In particular, social choice theoretic methods are ...
* '' The Power Elite'' *
Ruling class In sociology, the ruling class of a society is the social class who set and decide the political and economic agenda of society. In Marxist philosophy, the ruling class are the class who own the means of production in a given society and apply ...
*
Liberal elite Liberal elite, also referred to as the metropolitan elite or progressive elite, is a term used to describe politically liberal people whose education has traditionally opened the doors to affluence, wealth and power and who form a managerial elit ...
* Invisible Class Empire * Dictatorship of the bourgeoisie


References


Bibliography

* Amsden, Alice (2012) ''The Role of Elites in Economic Development'', Oxford University Press, 2012. with Alisa Di Caprio and James A. Robinson. * Bottomore, T. (1993) ''Elites and Society'' (2nd Edition). London: Routledge. * Burnham, J. (1960) ''The Managerial Revolution''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. * Crockett, Norman L. ed. ''The power elite in America'' (1970), excerpts from expert
online free
* Domhoff. G. William (1967–2009) ''Who Rules America?'' McGraw-Hill
online 5th edition
** Domhoff, G. William. ''Studying the power elite: Fifty years of who rules America?'' (Routledge, 2017); new essays by 12 experts * Downey, Liam, et al. "Power, hegemony, and world society theory: A critical evaluation." ''Socius'' 6 (2020): 237802312092005
online
* Dye, T. R. (2000) ''Top Down Policymaking'' New York: Chatham House Publishers. * Gonzalez, G. A. (2012) ''Energy and Empire: The Politics of Nuclear and Solar Power in the United States''. Albany: State University of New York Press * Gonzalez, G. A. (2009) ''Urban Sprawl, Global Warming, and the Empire of Capital.'' Albany: State University of New York Press * Gonzalez, G. A. (2006) ''The Politics of Air Pollution: Urban Growth, Ecological Modernization, And Symbolic Inclusion.'' Albany: State University of New York Press * Gonzalez, G. A. (2001) ''Corporate Power and the Environment.'' Rowman & Littlefield Publishers * Hunter, Floyd (1953) ''Community Power Structure: A Study of Decision Makers''. * Lerner, R., A. K. Nagai, S. Rothman (1996) ''American Elites''. New Haven CT: Yale University Press * Milch, Jan, (1992) . C.Wright Mills och hans sociologiska vision Om hans syn på makt och metod och vetenskap,. Sociologiska Institution Göteborgs Universit-("C.Wright Mills and his sociological vision About his views on power and methodology and science. Department of Sociology Gothenburg University") * Mills, C. Wright (1956) '' The Power Elite''
online
* Neumann, Franz Leopold (1944). ''Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism'', 1933 - 1944. Harper
online
* Putnam, R. D. (1976) ''The Comparative Study of Political Elites''. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall Prentice Hall was a major American publishing#Textbook_publishing, educational publisher. It published print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market. It was an independent company throughout the bulk of the twentieth cen ...
. * Putnam, R. D. (1977) ‘Elite Transformation in Advance Industrial Societies: An Empirical Assessment of the Theory of Technocracy’ in ''Comparative Political Studies'' Vol. 10, No. 3, pp383–411. * Schwartz, M. (ed.) (1987) ''The Structure of Power in America: The Corporate Elite as a Ruling Class''. New York: Holmes & Meier. * Volpe, G. (2021) ''Italian Elitism and the Reshaping of Democracy in the United States''. Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge. {{DEFAULTSORT:Elite Theory Comparative politics Political science theories Sociological theories Social class in the United States Political science Conflict theory Structural functionalism Majority–minority relations