ABSTRACT
Raymond Aron is one of those sociologists of the 20th century who integrated Pareto’s sociology of social action and the function of the elites into his own analysis of industrial society. In addition, he contributed to establish Pareto among the founders of sociology. Aron’s Pareto studies in the 1930s, however, were initially marked by refusal, as Pareto’s scientism seemed to justify the rise of violent elites, as in fascist Italy and national-socialist Germany. Since the 1950s however, Aron emphasized Pareto’s contribution to liberalism in politics and economics. Pareto’s observation that even in modern industrial societies there is always a mass of ruled and a small layer of rulers, the respective elite, turned Aron critically against the ideologies and claims of social equality asserted by the communist regimes and political parties of the 20th century. For Aron, however, Pareto’s sociology remained at least ambiguous since it encouraged value relativism in that, for Pareto, the decision for a political regime and for a concept of the common good was ultimately not justifiable in a logico-experimental way. In addition, Pareto’s super-historical concept of residuals, derivations, and elites neglected the distinction, essential for Aron, between authoritarian one-party regimes with their unified elites and constitutionally pluralistic regimes with their divided elites. In addition, pluralistic regimes at least try to tie the elite competition to the rule of law and to establish a minimum of control and transparency with respect to recruitment of elites and their exercise of power.
