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Elite Groups: A Scheme for the Study of Power in Canada*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

John Porter
John Porter*
Affiliation:
Carleton College
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Extract

Gaetano Mosca, in his work which has been translated as The Ruling Class, engaged in an extensive criticism of the democratic theory that stems in particular from Rousseau. In the light of the historical evidence which he considered important he concluded:

Among the constant facts and tendencies which are to be found in all political organisms one is so obvious that it is apparent to the most casual eye. In all societies—from societies that are meagerly developed and have barely attained the dawnings of civilization, down to the most advanced and powerful societies—two classes of people appear—a class that rules and a class that is ruled. The first always the less numerous, performs all political functions, monopolizes power and enjoys the advantages that power brings, whereas the second, the more numerous class is directed and controlled by the first ….

Mosca, of course, is but one of a long line of writers who have tried to show that as an explanation of the power processes democratic theory is absurd. At the same time, however, most of these anti-democratic writers grant that there is, in all human beings, a compelling sentiment that justice and equality should temper power; that the masses should enforce some restraint on their leaders; and that government always involves some kind of consent of the governed. Those who bring an empirical method to the study of power are frequently condemned on the ethical grounds that they seek to justify some kind of tyranny, but what they do more than anything else is to show up the realities of power. Only after some examination of a power system has been made, can it be determined whether or not that system conforms to some ethical ideal. The ideals which are widespread in the Western democracies are, first, that there is popular participation in decision-making; and, second, that the class system is open, that is, that recruitment to positions of power is the result of personal achievement in a competitive society.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , November 1955 , pp. 498 - 512
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1955

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Footnotes

*

This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association in Toronto, June 3, 1955.

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