ABSTRACT
This contribution reconstructs Pareto’s analysis on elites and democracy and evaluates its topicality for contemporary social and political sciences. First, it introduces the theoretical premises of the Paretian “theory of elites” and describes its contours. It then suggests some insights in order to “apply” Pareto’s perspective to contemporary democracy. Although in many ways Pareto’s general approach remains embedded in his time, this chapter argues for its topicality 100 years after his death. The focus lies on the perpetual problem of the conservation/transformation of social and political forms, the “circulation of elites”, the relationship between consent and conflict in politics, and the relationship between politics and economics.
