ABSTRACT
The concept of elites is particularly useful in clarifying major features of modern industrial societies. Because of the characteristics of industrial societies, the social significance of elites is growing, as is the difference between them and ruling classes. Aristotle’s purpose in writing the Politics was to halt the decline of the ancient city-state by devising a blueprint for a new and better one. Aristotle concentrated on the nature and purposes both of the state and the men selected to serve it. Aristotle thus linked elites to both the moral and material needs of the community. Saint-Simon was an advocate of a directed or a managed equilibrium to be supervised by those at the top. Saint-Simon, more clearly than Aristotle, understood the interconnection between elites and social functions and tried to work out a theoretical scheme to explain this relationship. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
