Political Elites
Geraint Parry
March, 2008
Paper, 154 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-9547966-0-0
European Consortium for Political Research Press
$32.50
Political Elites, first published in 1969, reviews the literature on the role of elites in politics. It deals with both the ‘classic’ elite theorists – Mosca, Pareto, Michels, Burnham and C. Wright Mills – and with many of the empirical and theoretical works on elites by modern political scientists and sociologists. It seeks to clarify the central terms of elite discourse, some of which have entered the everyday political vocabulary – ‘elitism’, ‘power elite’, ‘establishment’, ‘elite consensus’, ‘iron law of oligarchy’ and ‘mass’. It explores the ways in which the descriptions of power relationships can subtly be infiltrated by the values of the observers.
Related Subjects
About the Author
Geraint Parry was the W.J.M Mackenzie Professor and is now Emeritus Professor of Government at the University of Manchester. His research interests are in democratic theory and practice, political sociology and the history of political ideas. He is the author of 'John Locke' (1978) and, with G. Moyser and N. Day, 'Political Participation and Democracy in Britain' (1992). He has edited 'Participation in Politics' (1972), 'Democracy, Consensus and Social Contract' (1972, with P. Birnbaum and J. Lively), 'Democracy and Democratization' (1994, with M. Moran) and 'Fundamentals in British Politics' (1999, with I. Holliday and A. Gamble). His recent publications have been on the history of the relationship between political theory and educational thought. He has been editor of 'Government and Opposition', the journal of comparative politics, and is a former President of the Political Studies Association of the UK.
top of page
