Gaetano Mosca - The Ruling Class

COPYRIGHT, 1989, BY THE MCGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, INC.

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CONTENTS

PAGE

INTKODUCTION ix

CHAPTEB

I. POLITICAL SCIENCE 1

Political science, 1-2.The experimental method and its limitations, 3.Science and political science, 4.Environmental theories; climate, 5.North and South theories, 6-8,Mountain and plain, 9.Eacial theories; the struggle for existence, 10.The concept of race; superior and inferior races, 11.Race and social type, 12.Evolutionary theories: the struggle for preeminence vs. the struggle for existence, 13.Evolution and progress, 14-15. The historical method, 16-20.

v ll. THE RULING CLASS 50

The concept of the ruling class, 1.Ruling class and the classification of governments, 2.The organized minority and the unorganized majority, 3.Political forces: Military valor: serfdom in Poland, 4.Wealth, 5.Religion and learning, 6.Hereditary tendencies in ruling classes, 7.Stability and rejuvenation of ruling classes, 8.

III. FEUDAL AND BUREAUCRATIC SYSTEMS (including Elementi, Chap.

VI, 5-8) 70

The political formula, 1.Social type, 2.Religion and social type, 3-5,The feudal type of political organization, 6.*^The bureaucratic state, 7-8.~ :Comte's classification: the three stages, 9-11.Spencer's classification: militant and industrial states, 11-12.

IV. RULING CLASS AND SOCIAL TYPE 108

Social type and expansion, 1.Ruling class and mixtures of social types, 2.Unity of social type and class differentiation, 3-4. Lower classes and social type, 5.Class isolation and social type* 6.

V. JURIDICAL DEFENSE 120

The moral sense and evolution, 1-2.Mechanisms for moral discipline, 3.Religion and morals, 4.Law and morals: juridical defense and type of political organization, 5.Despotisms and absolute principles, 6.Balance of social forces, 7.Separation of church and state, 8.Distribution of wealth and middle class, 9.

CHAPTER PAGE

Organization and representation of social forces, 10.Tendencies toward self-assertion of social forces: the United States, 11.

VR SUFFRAGE AND SOCIAL FORCES ....*? 158

Democratic theory: majority rule, 1.Majority and minority in the representative system, 2.Government control of economic production, 8.The concept of state, 4. (For Elementi, Chap. VI, 5-8, see Chap. Ill above.)

Vll. CHURCHES, PARTIES, AND SECTS 163

Groups and the struggle instinct, 1.Sectarian tendencies in human groupings, 2.Traits of prophets and founders, 3.The growth of religions and sects, 4.Doctrines and social environment, 5. The appeal of doctrines to sentiments good and bad, 6.Religion and realities: Christianity, Mohammedanism, 7.Choices of faiths: mimetism, 8.The Church and worldliness, 9.Persecution and mass control, 10.The arts of propaganda, 11.Struggle and social type: Is permanent peace desirable? 12.

VIII. REVOLUTION 199

Hellenic and medieval revolutions, 1.Roman, feudal, and Mohammedan revolutions, 2.Revolutions in China, 3.National uprisings and wars of independence, 4.Peasant rebellions and their leaders, 5.Modern French revolutions and over-bureaucratization, 6.Secret societies, revolutionary traditions, 7.

C"

IX. STANDING ARMIES 222

Military power in primitive societies, 1.Mercenaries and feudal societies, 2.Mercenary tyrannies, 3.Rise of standing armies, 4.Citizen militias, 5.Social distinctions: officers and privates, 6.Race and military valor, 7.Standing armies and juridical defense, 8.

X. PARLIAMENTARISM 244

Ruling class and the problems of modern society, 1.^The future of religion, 2-4.The crisis of democracy, 5.Evils of parliamentary systems and types of criticism, 6.Reform of parliamentary systems: "constitutional" reform, 7.Decentralization and middle class, 8.

XL COLLECTIVISM (Elementi, Chap. X, 9-19) .. 271

Ancient socialism; Rousseau and the rise of socialism in Europe, 1. Collectivism and faith in social betterment, 2.Ruling class under collectivism, 3.Absolute justice and social living, 4.Anarchism, 5.The class struggle, 6.Socialism and the abolition of poverty, 7.Causes of the growth of socialism, 8,Prospects of socialism, 9.Socialism and State control: Christian socialism, 10.Socialism and equality, 11.

CHAPTKB PAGE

XII. THEOBY OP THE RULING CLASS (Elementi, Part II, Chap. I) .... 329

History of the concept of ruling class, 1.Hilling class theory and democratic bias, 2.The concept of ruling class and scientific method, 3.

XIII. TYPES OF POLITICAL ORGANIZATION (Elementi, Part II, Chap. II), . 338 Primitive monarchies, 1.The Near-Eastern empire, 2.The Greek city-state, 3.Its weaknesses and limitations, $4.

XIV. EVOLUTION OF POLITICAL ORGANIZATION (Elementi, Part II, Chap.

Ill) 860

The Roman city-state, and the concept of citizenship, 1.Rise of Roman bureaucracy and standing army: the Empire, 2.Decline of Roman middle class and fall of the Empire, 3.The barbarian kingdoms and feudalism, 4.Rise of the national absolutisms, 5. Middle class and representative system, 6.The English constitution as a model for the Continent, 7.The representative system and level of civilization: structural weaknesses of the representative . system, 8.

XV. PRINCIPLES AND TENDENCIES IN RULING CLASSES (Elementi, Part

II, Chap. IV) 394

Autocratic and liberal principles, aristocratic and democratic tendencies, 1.Autocratic systems, 2.Ruling class and autocracy, 3.Liberal systems, 4.The democratic tendency and replenishment of ruling class, 5.The aristocratic tendency and social fossili-zation, 6.Balance of principles and tendencies, 7.

XVI. RULING CLASS AND INDIVIDUAL (Elementi, Part II, Chap. V) ... 430 Rulers and ruling class, 1.Ruling class and the governed; foreign dominations, 2.Historical materialism, the economic interpretation of history, 3.Government by the best, 4.Absolute justice and relative justice, 5.Science and social movement, 6.

XVII. FUTURE OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT (Elementi, Part II,

Chap. VI) 465

The nineteenth century as an historical period, 1.Liberty, equality, fraternity, and their application, 2.Democracy and level of civilization, 3.Germs of decay in the representative system, 4.Alternatives to the representative system: dictatorship of the proletariat, bureaucratic absolutism, syndicalism, 5.Restoration of the representative system in Europe, 6.

INDEX AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 495

INTRODUCTION

I. Taine and Mosca: the Teorica.IL The Concept of History.III. Social Forces and Balance of Social Forces.IV. Juridical Defense: the importance of Political Organization.V. Standing Armies.VI. Social Type and Political Formula.VII. Level of Civilization.VIII. Democracy and Representative System.IX. Mosca and Pareto.X. On Translating Mosca.

I. TAINE AND MOSCA: THE Teorica

Gaetano Mosca's theory of the ruling class was evolved in its first form during the years 1878-1881, while Mosca was a* student under Angelo Messedaglia atUie iJiiiversity of Palermo. It occurred to him at that time to generalize the method which Taine had used in the Ancien regime. There, it will be remembered, Taine sought the origins of the French Revolution in the decadence of the groups of people that had ruled France during the golden age of the old monarchy, a class which he considered and analyzed under three headings, the crown, the clergy and the nobility.