ABSTRACT
This chapter culminates in a critique of neo-elite theory, a new version of ideological formalism. It argues that, although neo-elite theorists present themselves as more sympathetic to democratic government than were Vilfredo Pareto and Gaetano Mosca, their claim is misleading. Their work contributes less to understanding democratic government, and it has a greater tendency to serve as a legitimating ideology for oligarchic corruptions of democracy. The chapter begins with the issues raised by elite theory for democratic government, and the responses to them by political thinkers of the right, left and centre. Pareto and Mosca, the founders of elite theory, in addition to trying to combat revolutionary socialist ideas and to give political science new foundations, developed novel conceptions of modern democratic politics. Democratic and elite theory collide only when either it is asserted that self-government by a national community is impossible because of the inevitability of elites or when purported democratic theorists propose to elimin.
