ABSTRACT
In a democratic polity, no large organization can do without leadership or a "political class," the currently fashionable term resuscitated from the early writings of Gaetano Mosca. This chapter examines several questions. Did the leaders remain unchallenged by a docile membership, or did ideological factions challenge one another for leadership supremacy, and did dissidents force the party leaders to grant a measure of intraparty democracy? The Social Democratic Party’s (SPD) shift from a workers' to a people's party is seen especially among party functionaries. In this group, salaried employees and civil servants, more educated, expert, and articulate than others in the SPD, are overrepresented. The embourgeoisement of the leaders, whether in the party's mainstream or its left faction, was not a phenomenon restricted to the SPD but was characteristic of socialist parties throughout Western Europe. The political career of Helmut Schmidt illustrates another way to reach elite status in the party.
