ABSTRACT
Without a doubt, the debate around the notion of "elites" (whether singular or plural) in the social sciences is not limited to politics. In reducing the controversy surrounding the study of elites to a simple opposition between Marxist and liberal points of view, however, people risk overlooking its contribution to sociology more generally, in particular the introduction of new methods of analysis and a commitment to the empirical study of power. This chapter presents as analytic context that a group of American researchers put forward in the 1980s a new paradigm intended to get beyond the debate between pluralism and monism. It shows how this stream of research, long critiqued as elitist can today open the path for a novel elite-centered analysis of politics. The chapter explores how a renewed sociology of elites allows us better to understand regime change and even the prospect of the dismantling of democratic states.
