ABSTRACT
The entire framework of modern political analysis has been developed for the purpose of examining the patterns of order and of interaction in an established political system. To create a viable political system, the leadership will make use of four basic instruments of politics guns, funds, organization, and ideas first, to consolidate political power, and, second, to institutionalize the system which has been created. The existence of “an” elite assumes that there is a means of determining who are the legitimate power holders. Since the question of political legitimacy is unresolved in a predevelopmental system, no single “political elite” exists until one contending leadership group has consolidated power. Contending groups may be drawn from a single social or economic elite, if the social and economic systems have not disintegrated along with the political; however, predevelopmental systems generally face a period of social and economic breakdown.
