Power, Elites and Classes

The most prominent elite theorists are Weber's contemporary, Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) and Robert Michels (1876-1936).Gaetano Mosca (1858-1941)

They argued that only a small number of people in any organization can hold authority and that their occupation of these position automatically places them at adds with those subjected to it. They also suggested that elites who are in control generally share a common culture, and they are organized- not necessarily formally, but in the sense that they act together to defend their position, as well as using it to their own individual advantage. Elite theory explicitly presents the argument that people's self-interest and the intrinsically unequal nature of power make conflict both inevitable and permanent.

Robert Michel raised the Law of oligarchy, the proposition that small groups in authority come to run politically parties essentially for their own ends.

Mosca concerns the conflict between power holders and those whom they dominate.Like Marx, he identified political positions as the source of domination in all other spheres including the economic.

Pareto, on the other hand, recognized the existence of other nonpolitical elites, but he emphasized the governing elites who rule a society and the existence of ruling and subject classes who face each other like alien nations.

C Wright Mills had the similar social critiques.

Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) studied the root of power and conflict in a broad historical context. He analyzed society in terms of the conflicting interests of different social groups. C Wright Mills, continued his study in his discussion of status struggles.

Veblen, like Marx believed that modern society is characterized by the conflict between opposing economic groups.Broadly, he categories the society into industrial class (who make goods) and pecuniary class (who are involved in finance and sales).