Works
- Zur Soziologie des Parteiwesens in der modernen Demokratie: Untersuchungen über die oligarchischen Tendenzen des Gruppenlebens, W. Klinkhardt, Leipzig (xix and 401 pages); the standard English version, Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy, translated by Eden and Cedar Paul, Hearst's International Library, New York, 1915 (LCCN 16002000; ix and 416 pages), was made from the Italian edition, as its preface says, 1911
In Organizational Structures
Known for
The iron law of oligarchy.
Ideas
The iron law of oligarchy. Michels argued that complex organizations, democratic ones included, concentrate power in a small group of leaders: who says organization says oligarchy. Caveat: A study of political parties, as its title says; the text was not read, and the gist follows Scott and Davis's account (2007).
In this section, “read” means read by the Organizational Structures series: where a line says a work, or part of one, was not read, the series did not read it.