ABSTRACT
This chapter is an introduction to elite theory. Its principal function is to provide the essential tools for understanding this theory through a reconstruction of the political-cultural context, the fundamental theses, the basic concepts and their components, the taxonomies, and the theoretical distinctions between the authors. It explains how the various scientific orientations and political paths of key elitist thinkers were reflected in a greater or lesser sensitivity to the fundamental themes of elitism and in a different methodological perspective. Not only did the authors’ biographies and works testify to the state’s difficulty in responding to the new demands of mass society, but they highlighted the risks of the imminent authoritarian drift and the challenges for democracies. In presenting the main elements of elitist theory, indeed, the chapter sets out some of the characteristic issues of the development of the debate in the years to come. In particular, it analyses the dichotomy between government through the elites and government for the masses.
