The Ruling Class (Elements of Political Science)

Introduction

The “Elements of Political Science” appeared in Turin in 1896; the second edition of 1923 added a second part, and Arthur Livingston’s English translation of 1939 gave the work its familiar title, “The Ruling Class”. Mosca here sets out his theory systematically: the political class and its social basis, its recruitment and renewal, the “political formula” – a belief such as divine right or popular sovereignty – by which it justifies its rule, and the conditions of “juridical defence”, the binding of power to law through a balance of social forces. The second part, written after the First World War, distinguishes autocratic from liberal principles of authority and aristocratic from democratic tendencies, and defends the representative system. The book became a reference text of elite theory, read by Gramsci and, critically, by C. Wright Mills.

Connections

Builds on

• On the Theory of Governments and Parliamentary Government1884 · Gaetano Mosca

More works by Gaetano Mosca

• 1884On the Theory of Governments and Parliamentary Government