Pareto E Mosca

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.

Democratic Elitism

Natasha Piano argues that the Italian School of Elitism—comprising Pareto, Mosca, and Michels—has been consistently misread. These thinkers did not, as alleged, oppose electoral politics. Rather, they saw elections as just one component of democracy and warned that equating the two leaves publics disillusioned and vulnerable to elite capture.

On Mosca and Pareto