Gaetano Mosca
Gaetano Mosca (
April 1,
1858 Palermo,
Italy –
November 8,
1941 Rome,
Italy) was an Italian
political scientist,
journalist and
public servant. He is credited with developing the
Theory of Elitism and the doctrine of the
Political Class and is one of the three members constituting the
Italian School of Elitists together with
Vilfredo Pareto and
Robert Michels.
Mosca earned a degree in law from the
University of Palermo in
1881. In
1887 he moved to
Rome and took a position as editor of proceedings of the
Chamber of Deputies of Italy. Having been taught occasionally at
Palermo and
Rome, Mosca became chair of constitutional law at the
University of Turin in
1896. He would hold this position until
1924, when he settled permanently in
Rome to occupy the chair of public law at the
University of Rome. Mosca held several other academic positions throughout his life.
In
1909 Mosca was elected to the
Chamber of Deputies of Italy, in which he served until
1919. During this time, he served as Under-secretary for the Colonies from
1914 until
1916. In
1919, Mosca was nominated
life senator of the
Kingdom of Italy. He served actively in this capacity until
1926. During the
Fascist dictatorship, Mosca retired to teach and research.
During this time, Mosca also worked as a political journalist for the
Corriere della Sera of
Milan (after
1901) and the
Tribuna of
Rome (from
1911 to
1921).
Mosca is most famous, however, for his works of political theory. These were
Sulla teorica dei governi e sul governo parlamentare (Theory of Governments and Parlementary Government), published in
1884;
Elementi di scienza politica (The Ruling Class), published in
1896; and
Storia delle dottrine politiche (History of Political Doctrines), published in
1936.
Mosca's enduring contribution to
political science is the observation that all but the most primitive societies are ruled in fact, if not in theory, by a numerical minority. He named this minority the political class. Although his theory is correctly characterized as
elitist, it should be observed that its basis is far different from
The Power Elite described by, for example,
C. Wright Mills. Unlike Mills and later sociologists, Mosca aimed to develop a universal theory of political society and his more general theory of the
Political Class reflects this aim.
Mosca defined elites in term of their superior organisational skills. These organisational skills were especially useful in gaining political power in modern
bureaucratic society. Nevertheless, Mosca's theory was more democratic than the elitist theory of, for example,
Pareto, since in Mosca's conception, elites are not hereditary in nature and peoples from all classes of society can theoretically become "elite". He also adhered to the concept of "the circulation of elites," which is a dialectical theory of constant competition between elites, with one elite group replacing another repeatedly over time.
* Albertoni, Ettore,
Mosca and the Theory of Elitism. Oxford: Basil Blackwell (1987). ISBN 0631152547
