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Italian Elitism and the Reshaping
of Democracy in the United States

This book deals with the reception of Italian elitism in the United States,
identifying its key protagonists, phases, and themes. It starts from the
reconstruction of the scientific and political debates aroused in the United
States by the works of Mosca, Pareto, and Michels and moves on to define
their theoretical influence in the American scientific and academic contexts.
The analysis takes into consideration the period from the first contact between
elitists and American academia in the early 1920s to the publication of The
Power Elite by Mills in 1956, which marks the emancipation of American
elitism. After introducing the fundamental principles of elite theory, the first
part of the study reconstructs the debate that it aroused beyond the Atlantic.
The second part examines the original American reworking of the elitist
lesson, concentrating on the works of the authors most strongly influenced
by it: Joseph A. Schumpeter, Harold D. Lasswell, and Charles W. Mills.
The book aims to shed light on the contribution of Italian elitism to the
development of American political thought.

Giorgio Volpe is Lecturer at the Università della Svizzera Italiana.

Ideas beyond Borders: Studies in Transnational
Intellectual History
Series Editors: Jan Vermeiren and Matthew D’Auria
University of East Anglia

In 1944, the Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce called his fellow scholars
to de-nationalise the study of the past, overcoming the cast in which history
had been shaped from the nineteenth century onwards and that had contrib-
uted to make the nation a seemingly natural and everlasting phenomenon.
Indeed, the scholarly community has had to wait more than half a century
for the so-called transnational turn, which has led to many new insights
but focused primarily on political and social developments. Considering the
renewed interest in intellectual and conceptual history, the aim of ‘Ideas
beyond Borders’ is to contribute to a new understanding of the ways in
which ideas, discourses, images, and representations have been shaped trans-
nationally, going beyond national, regional, or civilisational borders. The
series focuses on transnational concepts and notions, such as Europe, civili-
sation, pan-region, etc. The timespan ranges, roughly, from the sixteenth
century to the present day.

Visions and Ideas of Europe in the First World War

Edited by Jan Vermeiren and Matthew D’Auria

Italian Elitism and the Reshaping of Democracy in the United States

Giorgio Volpe

For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/

Ideas-beyond-Borders/book-series/IDEASBEYOND
Italian Elitism and the
Reshaping of Democracy
in the United States

Giorgio Volpe
First published in English 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Giorgio Volpe
The right of Giorgio Volpe to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
An earlier version of this work was published in Italian as We,
the Elite: Storia dell’elitismo negli Stati Uniti dal 1920 al 1956 by
FedOA – Federico II University Press 2019.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Volpe, Giorgio, author.
Title: Italian elitism and the reshaping of democracy in the United
States / Giorgio Volpe.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2021. | Series:
Ideas beyond borders | Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020049730 (print) | LCCN 2020049731 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Elite (Social sciences)—Italy. | Elite (Social sciences)—
Philosophy. | Democracy—United States.
Classification: LCC HN490.E4 V65 2021 (print) | LCC HN490.E4
(ebook) | DDC 305.5/208951073—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020049730
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020049731

ISBN: 978-0-367-62970-0 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-11165-8 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Tina
Contents

Acknowledgements viii

Introduction 1

1 The Italian school of elitism 10

2 Politics in transformation 38

3 The two faces of elitism 68

4 From the people to the elites 119

5 We, the elite 141

Conclusion 178

Index 182
Acknowledgements

I, first of all, thank Maurizio Viroli for having firmly believed in this research
project from the very beginning. His encouragement, valuable advice, and
acute criticism have been a fundamental resource for the completion of this
book. I would also like to thank the James Madison Program for offering
me the opportunity of pursuing my studies on elitism in such a stimulating
intellectual environment as is the University of Princeton. I address a grateful
thought to Edoardo Massimilla, who first fed my interest in the ideas and
works of Robert Michels, transmitting to me his own passion and rigour for
research. I am grateful to Giovanni Borgognone and Francesco Tuccari, with
whom I shared the initial idea of the book and whose studies have been a
source of inspiration. I also thank Matthew D’Auria and Max Novick, who
patiently and skilfully followed the various editorial phases of this volume.
My most sincere gratitude also goes to those who have read the manuscript
and have helped me with their observations and advice, in particular, Ales-
sandro Arienzo, Gennaro Barbuto, Maurizio Griffo, and Marialuisa Zam-
pella. I cannot forget the colleagues and friends who have discussed this
book with me. Among others, I would like to mention Gabriella Argnani,
Luigi Musella, Marcello Gisondi, George Kateb, and Pierluigi Totaro. While
everyone mentioned here and above has helped to improve the form and
content of the present work, any remaining faults, distortions, and omissions
are my responsibility alone.
I also thank the Harvey S. Firestone Memorial Library of Princeton Uni-
versity, the Library of the University of Lugano, the Istituto italiano per
gli Studi storici in Naples, the Fondazione “Luigi Einaudi” in Turin, the
Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin, the University
of Chicago Library, and the Department of Political Studies at the Sapi-
enza University in Rome, which allowed me to conduct my research in the
best conditions I could ask for. I also express my appreciation for FedOA –
Federico II University Press, particularly Roberto Delle Donne, that has pub-
lished a much different and shorter version of this book, titled We the Elite:
Storia dell’elitismo negli Stati Uniti dal 1920 al 1956.
My family and all of my friends deserve a special mention for putting up
with me and never letting me lack their support and affection, even in the most
challenging moments. Especially, I thank Tina, to whom I dedicate this book.
Introduction

In November 2006, the American Political Association Review celebrated its

100th anniversary by publishing a special issue dedicated to the “evolution
of political science.” Since the topic is very vast, especially within the limited
space of a volume, the editors necessarily had to make selective choices. Nev-
ertheless, it is surprising that the names of Gaetano Mosca, Vilfredo Pareto,
and Robert Michels occur only once in the numerous and valuable essays.1
In fact, their works made a crucial contribution to the renewal of politi-
cal studies and the birth of political science in particular. This is especially
true in the United States, where Italian elitism found fertile ground and had
the most significant impact. The reasons and dynamics of this phenomenon
remain, for the most part, obscure. This book aims to shed light on the recep-
tion of Italian elite theory in the United States and its contribution to the
development of American political thought.
Several scholars have dealt with the topic of the diffusion of Mosca,
Pareto, and Michels’ work in the United States. In the same year that Stuart
Hughes published Consciousness and Society,2 James H. Meisel linked Ital-
ian elitism and American political thought. After presenting Mosca’s theory
and work, he concluded The Myth of the Ruling Class with an analysis
of the relationship between Italian authors and, among others, Joseph A.
Schumpeter, Carl J. Friedrich, and especially Charles Wright Mills.3 By the
1950s, American academia had already assimilated the elitist lessons, and
references to Mosca, Pareto, and Michels became more frequent. However,
taking stock of their influence in the United States was still premature at that
stage, and Meisel himself closed his study by declaring that the debate on the
elite theory would go on. Between 1962 and 1965, the reprinting of the main
works of Mosca, Pareto, and Michels testified to the continuing interest in
them. Gradually, scholars became aware of the influence that elitism had
on the scientific debate in the United States and, within a few years, several
contributions expanded the relationship between elite theory and Ameri-
can political thought. Meisel was among the most diligent, publishing the
first essay dedicated to the fortunes of Mosca, and Pareto, across the Atlan-
tic.4 He proposed an interpretation of the reasons for the different recep-
tions that the two Italian authors had in the United States and attempted
a reconstruction of the very early stages of the American reception of The
2 Introduction
Ruling Class, underlining the importance of James Burnham for the dif-
fusion of elitism. For the purposes of this study, moreover, the connection
between Mosca and Schumpeter, Mills, and Lasswell-Kaplan is particularly
interesting. Peter Bachrach emphasized the importance of the Italian elitist
school for the development of democratic theory after the Second World
War, associating it with some leading American scholars of the time, includ-
ing Schumpeter, Lasswell, and Mills.5 However, his study does not focus on
Italian elitism specifically but on the contribution that Mills and Mosca,
in particular, have made to the formulation of the elitist-democratic para-
digm. In his study on elites and social classes, Thomas B. Bottomore refers to
Mosca, Pareto, and Michels, relating their thinking to that of other authors,
such as Marx, Weber, Mannheim, Friedrich, Lasswell, Mills, and others.6 It
is a purely theoretical study, which goes beyond the problem of the recep-
tion of elitism in the United States. However, Bottomore’s work is interesting
because it captures and develops some points of contact between the Italian
school and the authors who subsequently addressed the issue of the elites.
A similar argumentation can be put forward for Suzanne I. Keller’s Beyond
the Ruling Class and Geraint Parry’s Political Elites.7 Above all, the latter
is useful because it describes the different elitist theories – Mosca, Michels,
and Pareto appear among the classics – analysing the context in which they
emerged and identifying the problems they pose to democratic theory. Nev-
ertheless, it does not take on Italian elitism as its principal and constant point
of reference, nor does it aim to reconstruct its diffusion in the United States.
On the Italian side, Norberto Bobbio deserves praise for having highlighted
the international importance of the Italian tradition of political studies.8
Conducted over a decade, his studies on Mosca and Pareto have indicated
some crucial traces of research concerning the interest aroused overseas by
Italian authors, although this theme was not the main subject of his study.
In the 1970s, the scientific debate regarding the role and configuration
of the elites began to run out. Gradually, the conflict between elitists and
pluralists ended, and social scientists abandoned the issue of the distribu-
tion of power within society. Despite this, historiographical interest in Ital-
ian elitism did not disappear. In this context, The Anti-Democratic Sources
of Elite Theory by Robert A. Nye should be mentioned: a concise text, but
which offers an interesting overview of the influence of Mosca, Pareto, and
Michels on American political thought from the 1940s to the mid-1970s.9
Nye’s study does not analyse the individual works and is not exhaustive as
it leaves out some relevant authors. However, it is a significant attempt to
systematize and periodize the history of American elitism. In the same year,
Alan Zuckerman also published an essay on political elites, proposing to
bring order to the existing literature.10 Starting from the definitions pro-
posed by Lasswell, Mills, Dahl, Meisel, Bottomore, and others, he goes back
to the theses of Mosca and Pareto. Although it is conceptual in nature, the
study is useful because it delves into some of the paths of theoretical filiation
that are the subject of this book.
 Introduction 3
In the following years, other scholars have analysed the relationship
between Mosca, Pareto, Michels, and American political thought in a more
systematic way. Mario Stoppino emphasized how the elites represent the
most important strand of research in contemporary political science, recog-
nizing the role of precursors of Italian authors. In particular, he supported
the strong connection between the elitists and the Chicago School of Charles
Merriam and Harold Lasswell.11 The history of the elite theory by Gior-
gio Sola, on the other hand, follows the transformations of the doctrine
from the moment of its birth up to the most recent elaborations, giving an
account of the affinities and differences between the numerous authors ana-
lysed.12 Although this analysis can be considered among the best studies of
historiographical reconstruction on elitism, going deeper into the scientific
debate aroused by the work of classical authors in the United States is not its
objective. Even if not primarily focused on elitism, Giovanni Borgognone’s
studies on the realistic and technocratic component of American political
theory help to reconstruct the intellectual context in which the reception of
the works of Mosca, Pareto, and Michels took place. In particular, he shows
the influence of neo-Machiavellians on Burnham, Lasswell, and the Chi-
cago School.13 The essay by Grassi Orsini, which reviewed the story of the
translation of Mosca and Pareto’s works concerning the American political-
cultural context, is in a similar vein.14
In addition to the more general analyses, the studies that have highlighted
the relationship of a single elitist author with American academia should be
mentioned. Ettore Albertoni has studied the circulation of Mosca’s theory
in the United States, writing and editing several publications on the sub-
ject. Largely, he accepted Bachrach’s thesis about the elitist contribution
in general, and the Sicilian professor in particular, to the formulation of a
new democratic theory.15 The close theoretical link between the theories of
Mosca and Schumpeter has been the subject of analysis several times, so
much so that it has become a fact for the scientific community. In addition
to the works already mentioned and others that could be quoted, another
study to mention is the detailed analysis by Stoppino.16 Numerous studies
have delved into Pareto’s relationship with the United States. Among others,
it seems appropriate to mention John E. Tashjean on the similarities between
Pareto, in part Mosca, and Lasswell; James Lane on some English and Amer-
ican interpretations of Mind and Society, notably Parsons; Joseph Lopreato
and Sandra Rusher on Pareto’s influence on American sociology, especially
on Parsons, Mills, George C. Homans, and Robert K. Merton.17 The Pareto
Circle deserves a separate discussion as it is a particularly important story for
understanding the spread of Pareto’s theories in America in which various
scholars have been interested.18 In the 1960s, the new American and Italian
editions of Political Parties were an opportunity to take stock of the situa-
tion on Michels’ international fortunes. The introductions by Seymour M.
Lipset and Juan J. Linz, indeed, address the subject, adding interesting details
regarding the influence exerted by Michels’ work on American scholars after
4 Introduction
the Second World War.19 More recently, several works by Francesco Tuc-
cari refer to the topic of Michels and the United States. In particular, here,
it is useful to indicate two essays. The first deals, on the one hand, with an
analysis of the Michelsian writings concerning America, and on the other,
with a reconstruction of the main stages of Michels’ overseas journey as well
as analysing the report he wrote to his return. The second essay focuses on
Burnham’s interpretation of Political Parties and the enormous influence it
had on the circulation of Michelsian thought.20
Although it does not claim to be exhaustive, this literature review confirms
that the link between Italian elitism and American political thought is now
an established fact. Over the years, scholars have clarified this relationship,
developing some fruitful lines of research. Initially, the analyses mainly had
a theoretical character and, in some cases, were affected by the controversy
between elitists and pluralists. Over time, a more detached research per-
spective has emerged, capable of historicizing and clarifying the American
interest in elite theory. However, a history of elitism in the United States is
still missing. This book intends to fill this gap, identifying the reasons, the
protagonists, the phases, and the themes of American interest in elite theory.
It starts from the reconstruction of the scientific and political debate aroused
overseas by the works of Mosca, Pareto, and Michels to arrive at defining
their theoretical influence in the American scientific context. The analysis
takes into consideration the period from the first contact between elitists
and American academia in the early 1920s to the publication of The Power
Elite by Mills in 1956, which marks the moment of the emancipation of
American elitism.
The first chapter, The Italian school of elitism, is an introduction to elite
theory. Its principal function is to provide the essential tools for understand-
ing this theory through a reconstruction of the political-cultural context, the
fundamental theses, the basic concepts and their components, the taxono-
mies, and the theoretical distinctions between the authors. It explains how
the various scientific orientations and political paths of key elitist thinkers
were reflected in a greater or lesser sensitivity to the fundamental themes
of elitism and in a different methodological perspective. Not only did the
authors’ biographies and works testify to the state’s difficulty in responding
to the new demands of mass society, but they highlighted the risks of the
imminent authoritarian drift and the challenges for democracies. In present-
ing the main elements of elite theory, indeed, the chapter sets out some of the
characteristic issues of the development of the debate in the years to come. In
particular, it analyses the dichotomy between government through the elites
and government for the masses.
The second chapter, Politics in transformation, investigates the strictly
scientific reasons why American scholars looked favourably on the elitist
attempt to establish the study of politics on a no-evaluative and empirical
method. It reconstructs the dynamics and the times during which Mosca,
Pareto, and Michels came into contact with their American colleagues and
 Introduction 5
examines aspects of the elite theory that were considered most relevant for
the renewal of political studies. The American reception of elitism was the
expression of a rapidly changing scientific context, in which the elitist works
found a perfect collocation. They deepened the study of the nature of power,
but no longer on the abstract and linear plane of political philosophy, on
the empirical and jagged levels of concrete behaviour. The realist approach
adopted by the elitists in the analysis of society helped American scholars
to find new research paths. The latter understood that the elitist lesson
favoured an epistemological change in political studies and, at the same
time, made it possible to interpret even the society in which they lived. In this
way, the American interest in the elite theory went beyond mere doctrinal
questions because its interpreters were aware that some of their social and
political problems were similar on the other side of the Atlantic, especially
in the years following the 1929 crisis.
The third chapter, The two faces of elitism, highlights how American aca-
demia looked at elitism to investigate some significant aspects of the politics
in Italy and in the United States. The context of the 1920s and 1930s not
only confirmed the underlying assumptions of elite theory – the impossibil-
ity of a government that was the full and concrete expression of the popular
will – but also amplified its effects. According to the elitist paradigm, greater
involvement of the masses in political life would not necessarily produce
more democratic decision-making processes, but, rather, a progressive bias
in the behaviour of the ruling classes. Concerning the connection between
masses and power, hence, the political elites seemed to be at crossroads:
choosing the path of demagogic autocracies or tending towards a model
of elitist democracy. The distinction between the two possible orientations
depended on the form of democracy assumed as a theoretical reference
model, for which the elite theory acted as a “theoretical reagent.” If democ-
racy was understood primarily as direct democracy, it refuted the democratic
ideal and, therefore, democracy tout court. In this case – championed by
Michels, as shall be seen – elite theory took on anti-democratic connota-
tions and finally provided a justification for autocracy. If democracy was
interpreted as representative democracy, elite theory confirmed the sound-
ness of the democratic process, conceived as a regulatory mechanism in the
struggle between elites for the conquest of power rather than the expression
of the popular will. In this perspective, corresponding to Mosca’s vision,
elite theory contributed to the redefinition of the concept of democracy in
a realist sense and, in the case of the Sicilian professor, to a reappraisal of
the representative system as the only one capable of granting the political
and civil liberties of the individual. To assess the effective contribution pro-
vided by elitism to the understanding of political phenomena, however, it is
necessary to move from the abstract level of theoretical distinctions to the
more concrete and complex of historical events, considering the differences
described earlier as indicators of a prevailing political tendency within the
ruling classes. In this perspective, elitism can be related with Fascism and the
6 Introduction
New Deal. On the one hand, the chapter considers how American scholars
used elite theory to understand the fascist regime; on the other, it compares
the theories of Mosca, Pareto, and Michels with some of the most significant
works of American technocratic thought to prove possible points of contact.
In this, there is no intention to identify elitism with Fascism, much less with
the New Deal. However, it will be argued that elite theory constituted, if
not the ideological basis of both these phenomena, their implicit theoretical
premises – albeit for different reasons. These were the political reasons for
the American interest in Mosca, Pareto, and Michels’ works.
In the fourth chapter, From the people to the elites, the research focus
shifts from the reasons for this interest to the products of the exerted by
elitism on American studies to highlight its historical-cultural value for the
American context. The chapter deals with the criticism of the democratic
myth carried out by Joseph Schumpeter, Harold Lasswell, and Charles
Wright Mills. In fact, these authors renewed the elitist lesson in the most
original way. Elitism is not the only, nor the primary, source of inspiration
for the aforementioned authors, nor were they the only ones to be influ-
enced by it. More precisely, the object here is to discern how elitism runs
as a common thread through their respective works. In this sense, there is a
distinction made between the actual reception of elite theory and the more
general approach of some strains of American political thought. The time
between the two World Wars marked the crisis of democratic values and
institutions: the will of the people was no longer trusted and the impulse of
the crowd began to be feared. Although the United States did not have an
authoritarian drift, the Great Depression and the advent of European totali-
tarianism had equally important consequences on American politics, chang-
ing its face. The old way of conceiving politics was now inadequate to meet
the economic and social challenges of modernity: the increasing complexity
of reality seemingly coincided with the concentration of power in the hands
of the few. Soon the effects of this process also manifested themselves on a
theoretical level. Classical democracy doctrine was also questioned in the
United States on the basis of a realistic analysis of its functioning, regard-
less of its ideals. In reflecting on this theme, Schumpeter, Lasswell, and Mills
showed that they had assimilated the themes of classical elitism. American
interpreters, however, did not take the detached gaze of those who comment
on a doctrine developed abroad but showed the involvement of those who
analyse the society in which they live. Therefore, developing elitist themes,
they agreed that democracy was a competition between elites in which peo-
ple’s rule was a myth that served to legitimize power.
The fifth chapter, We, the elite, demonstrates that the idea of the domina-
tion of a minority did not give rise to a univocal view of the phenomenon by
American elitists. Once the existence of significant inequalities in the distri-
bution of power is recognized, it is necessary to verify how many elites hold
power and to understand the real level of democracy of American society.
Do one or more elites exist? Is the distribution of power pluralistic? How
 Introduction 7
is the relationship between dominant and mass classes configured? After an
overview of American elitist studies in the 1950s, this chapter examines the
answers provided by Lasswell and Mills, taken as an expression of the main
theoretical orientations expressed by the American scientific community on
the subject (elitist pluralism and monistic elitism). The analysis encompasses
three levels: the first focuses on elites (definition, composition, and exten-
sion); the second considers the phenomenon of ruling minorities from a social
perspective, comparing the pluralist and monistic perspectives; and the third
concerns the American scholars’ different approaches to elite theory, consid-
ered either as the affirmation of a principle or as a tool for the interpretation
of existing systems. More generally, elite theory helped American scholars
to understand the transformations taking place in society and politics, pro-
viding a method and categories that met their requirements. Their interest
produced an original theoretical thought able to interpret the workings of
American mass society. Beyond the different theoretical orientations and per-
sonal political evaluations, indeed, these scholars shared the fundamental
belief that the rule by the people should be reinterpreted as the control of the
people by the ruling elites. This notion also underpins the redefinition of the
democratic myth, that is, the basis of the cultural hegemony that the United
States exercised in the world after the end of the Second World War.
Whether and to what extent American cultural hegemony is still present is
a subject that is outside the field of investigation of this project. However, in
a constantly changing global society, “who rules?” is a topic that still arouses
interest.21 The history of nations is a constant alternation of rebirth and dec-
adence, civilization and barbarism, abrupt stops, and sudden changes. The
most recent events in European and American politics testify the emergence
of new phenomena. But, in their essential features, they are reminiscent of
some chapters of the past, which were believed forever closed. Once again,
the destiny of Western democracies seems suspended between demagogy and
technocracy. Hopefully, the following chapters can provide some indications
and food for thought to understand these processes.

Notes
1 James Farr, Jacob S. Hacker, and Nicole Kazee, “The Policy Scientist of Democ-
racy: The Discipline of Harold D. Lasswell,” The American Political Science
Review 100/4 (2006), 585. In the same volume, Mark Blyth, “Great Punctua-
tions: Prediction, Randomness, and the Evolution of Comparative Political Sci-
ence” also mentions Pareto, but not concerning the elite theory.
2 Henry Stuart Hughes, Consciousness and Society: The Reorientation of Euro-
pean Social Thought, 1890–1930 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1958).
3 James H. Meisel, The Myth of the Ruling Class: Gaetano Mosca and the Elite
(Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1958).
4 James H. Meisel, “Mosca Transatlantico,” Cahiers Vilfredo Pareto 2/4 (1964),
109–17. The following year, Meisel reprinted the essay in a volume that collected
some studies on Mosca and Pareto, written by mainly American scholars: James
H. Meisel (ed.), Mosca and Pareto (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1965).
8 Introduction
5 Peter Bachrach, The Theory of Democratic Elitism: A Critique (Boston, MA:
Little Brown & Company, 1967).
6 Thomas B. Bottomore, Elites and Society (London: C. A. Watts, 1964).
7 Suzanne I. Keller, Beyond the Ruling Class: Strategic Elites in Modern Society
(New York: Random House, 1963); Geraint Parry, Political Elites (London: G.
Allen & Unwin, 1969).
8 Norberto Bobbio, Saggi sulla scienza politica in Italia (Bari and Rome: Laterza,
1969), partial English translation: On Mosca and Pareto (Geneva: Librairie
Droz, 1972).
9 Robert A. Nye, The Anti-Democratic Sources of Elite Theory: Pareto, Mosca,
Michels (London and Beverly Hills: Sage, 1977).
10 Alan Zuckerman, “The Concept ‘Political Elite’: Lessons from Mosca and Pareto,”
The Journal of Politics 39/2 (1977), 324–44.
11 Mario Stoppino, “Potere ed élites politiche,” in L’analisi della politica: Tradizioni
di ricerca, modelli, teorie, edited by Angelo Panebianco (Bologna: Il Mulino,
1989), 221–53; reprinted in Mario Stoppino, Potere ed élites politiche (Milan:
Giuffré Editore, 2000), 1–48.
12 Giorgio Sola, La teoria delle élites (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2000). See also idem,
Storia della scienza politica (Rome: La Nuova Italia Scientifica, 1996).
13 Giovanni Borgognone, I tecnocrati del progresso (Turin: Utet, 2015); idem,
James Burnham: Totalitarismo, managerialismo e teoria delle élites (Aosta: Sty-
los, 2000); idem, “Neomachiavellismo, realismo e tecnocrazia nella teoria polit-
ica americana,” in Il realismo politico: Figure, concetti, prospettive di ricerca,
edited by Alessandro Campi and Stefano De Luca (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbet-
tino, 2014), 315–34.
14 Fabio Grassi Orsini, “Pareto, Mosca, Salvemini e la politologia americana,” in
Oltreoceano: Politica e comunicazione tra Italia e Stati Uniti nel Novecento,
edited by Davide Grippa (Florence: Olschki, 2017), 197–210.
15 Ettore A. Albertoni, Dottrina della classe politica e teoria delle élite (Milan: Giuf-
frè, 1985); idem, Mosca and the Theory of Elitism (Oxford: Blackwell, 1987);
idem (ed.), Studies on the Political Thought of Gaetano Mosca: The Theory of
the Ruling Class and Its Development Abroad (Milan: Giuffrè, 1982); idem
(ed.), Elitismo e democrazia nella cultura politica del Nord-America (Stati Uniti –
Canada – Messico) (Milan: Giuffrè, 1989).
16 Mario Stoppino, “Democrazia e classe politica: Un confronto tra Schumpeter e
Mosca,” in Studi in onore di Carlo Emilio Ferri, vol. 1 (Milan: Giuffrè, 1973),
539–60; reprinted in Stoppino, Potere ed élites politiche, 239–58.
17 James Lane, “Pareto’s English Language Critics: A Reassessment of British and
American Interpretations,” Revue européenne des sciences sociales 16/43 (1978),
105–29; John E. Tashjean, “Politics: Lasswell and Pareto,” Cahiers Vilfredo
Pareto 8/22–23 (1970), 267–72; Joseph Lopreato and Sandra Rusher, “Vilfredo
Pareto’s Influence on USA sociology,” Revue européenne des sciences sociales
21/65 (1983), 69–122.
18 Robert T. Keller, “The Harvard Pareto Circle and the Historical Development of
Organization Theory,” Journal of Management 10/2 (1984), 193–204; Barbara
S. Heyl, “The Harvard Pareto Circle,” Journal of the History of the Behavioral
Sciences 4/4 (1968), 316–34; Annie L. Cot, “A 1930s North American Creative
Community: The Harvard ‘Pareto Circle’,” History of Political Economy 43/1
(2011), 131–59; Joel Isaac, Working Knowledge: Making the Human Sciences
from Parsons to Kuhn (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012), 63–91.
19 Seymour Martin Lipset, “Introduction,” in Robert Michels, Political Parties:
A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy
(London: Crowell-Collier, 1962), 15–39; Juan J. Linz, “Robert Michels and His
Contribution to Political Sociology in Historical and Comparative Perspective,”
 Introduction 9
in Juan J. Linz, Robert Michels, Political Sociology, and the Future of Democracy
(New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2006), 1–80; idem, “Robert Michels,”
in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, edited by David L. Sills,
vol. 10 (New York: Macmillan and Free Press, 1968), 265–72.
20 Francesco Tuccari, “Un inedito michelsiano: La relazione sull’America del 1927,”
Annali della Fondazione Luigi Einaudi 40 (2006), 371–89; idem, “Machiavel-
lian? Il Michels di James Burnham,” in Il realismo politico, 529–58.
21 Heinrich Best and John Higley (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Political Elites
(London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).
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