Adolf Gasser (1903–1985) was a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

historian.

Education

Gasser completed his studies in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

and

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

with doctorates in history and classical

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

Career

From 1928 to 1969 Gasser taught as a grammar school teacher in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

. In the course of Gasser's lectureships he became private lecturer in 1936 and an adjunct professor in 1942; from 1950 to 1985 he taught as an extraordinary professor for constitutional history at the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis''; German: ''Universität Basel'') is a public research university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest univ ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Gasser started an active lecturing activity in the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen constituent states have a total population of over 84 ...

. Gasser was joint founder of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, from 1953 to 1968 Gasser was a Liberal member of the Grand Council of Basel, and he was a president of the FDP of the canton Basel.

Works

His works include (published in German language, all titles are translated here for better understanding): * The territorial development of Switzerland. Confederation 1291–1797, 1932 * History of the People’s Freedom and Democracy, 1939 * Communal freedom as salvation of Europe, 1943 * On the foundations of the state, 1950 * ''Preussischer Militärgeist und Kriegsentfesselung 1914'', 1985

Refutation of Robert Michels' Iron Law of Oligarchy

In his book Political Parties, written in 1911,

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 ...

argues that most representative systems deteriorate towards an oligarchy or particracy. This is known as the iron law of oligarchy. In his book "Gemeindefreiheit als Rettung Europas" which was published in 1943 (first edition in German) and a second edition in 1947 (in German), Adolf Gasser stated the following requirements for a representative democracy in order to remain stable, unaffected by the iron law of oligarchy: * Society has to be built up from bottom to top. As a consequence, society is built up by people, who are free and have the power to defend themselves with weapons. * These free people join or form local communities. These local communities are independent, which includes financial independence, and they are free to determine their own rules. * Local communities join together into a higher unit e.g. a canton. * There is no hierarchical bureaucracy. * There is competition between these local communities e.g. on services delivered or on taxes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gasser, Adolf 1903 births 1985 deaths 20th-century Swiss historians Swiss male writers Academic staff of the University of Basel 20th-century Swiss male writers