Person · Open Library
- Works
- 34
Top works
- Sexual Ethics
- Political Parties; A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy
- Sittlichkeit in Ziffern?
- Political Parties Sociological Study Olgrchcl
- Archiv Für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik; Volume 22
via Open Library + Wikidata
Music · MusicBrainz
- Type
- Person
- Gender
- Male
- Origin
- Germany
- Active from
- 1810-06-08
- Active to
- 1856-07-29
classicalcomposergermanromanticromantic classicalto clean up
Discography
~14 min read
Article
Robert Michels ( German: [ˈmɪçəls]; 9 January 1876 – 3 May 1936) was a German-born Italian sociologist who contributed to elite theory by describing the political behavior of intellectual elites. He belonged to the Italian school of elitism. He is known best for his book Political Parties, published in 1911, which contains a description of the "iron law of oligarchy".
Michels was a friend and disciple of Max Weber, Werner Sombart, and Achille Loria. Politically, he transitioned from the Social Democratic Party of Germany to the Italian Socialist Party, endorsing the Italian revolutionary syndicalist group and later Italian fascism. His ideas provided the basis of moderation theory, which specifies the processes by which radical political groups are incorporated into an existing political system.