Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The iron law of oligarchy is a political theory first developed by the German-born Italian sociologist Robert Michels in his 1911 book Political Parties. [1] It asserts that rule by an elite, or oligarchy , is inevitable as an "iron law" within any democratic organization as part of the "tactical and technical necessities" of the organization.
[1] [2] He is best known for his book Political Parties, published in 1911, which contains a description of the "iron law of oligarchy." [3] [4] [5] He was a friend and disciple of Max Weber, Werner Sombart and Achille Loria.
Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy (German: Zur Soziologie des Parteiwesens in der modernen Demokratie; Untersuchungen über die oligarchischen Tendenzen des Gruppenlebens) is a book by the German-born Italian sociologist Robert Michels, published in 1911 and first introducing the concept of iron law of oligarchy.
The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization. [85] This is related to the iron law of oligarchy and to the Self-licking ice cream cone.
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:
Iron law of population, from Thomas Malthus' An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) Iron law of wages, from Ferdinand Lassalle's Subsistence theory of wages (mid 19th century) Iron law of oligarchy, from Michels' Political Parties; Iron law of processor performance, posited by Joel Emer; Iron law of prohibition, from Cohen's How the ...
Sociologist Michels developed the iron law of oligarchy where, he asserts, social and political organizations are run by 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:
The term establishment is often used in Australia to refer both to the main political parties and also to the powers behind those parties. In the book, Anti-political Establishment Parties: A Comparative Analysis by Amir Abedi (2004), [7] Amir Abedi refers to the Labor Party and the Coalition Parties (the Liberal Party and the National/Country Party) as the establishment parties.