– November 8, 1941 Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

) was an Italian political scientist

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

, journalist

Journalism

Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...

 and public servant

Bureaucrat

A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can comprise the administration of any organization of any size, though the term usually connotes someone within an institution of a government or corporation...

. He is credited with developing the Theory of Elitism

Elitism

Elitism is the belief or attitude that some individuals, who form an elite — a select group of people with intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes — are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most...

and the doctrine of the Political class

Political class

Political class, or political elite is a concept in comparative political science originally developed by Italian political theorist theory of Gaetano Mosca . It refers to the relatively small group of activists that is highly aware and active in politics, and from whom the national leadership is...

and is one of the three members constituting the Italian School of Elitists together with Vilfredo Pareto

Vilfredo Pareto

Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto , born Wilfried Fritz Pareto, was an Italian engineer, sociologist, economist, political scientist and philosopher. He made several important contributions to economics, particularly in the study of income distribution and in the analysis of individuals' choices....

 and Robert Michels

Robert Michels

Robert Michels was a German sociologist who wrote on the political behavior of intellectual elites and contributed to elite theory...

.

Life

Mosca earned a degree in law from the University of Palermo

University of Palermo

The University of Palermo is a university located in Palermo, Italy, and founded in 1806. It is organized in 12 Faculties.-History:The University of Palermo was officially founded in 1806, although its earliest roots date back to 1498 when medicine and law were taught there...

 in 1881. In 1887 he moved to Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 and took a position as editor of proceedings of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy. Having taught occasionally at Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

 and Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Mosca became chair of constitutional law at the University of Turin

University of Turin

The University of Turin is a university in the city of Turin in the Piedmont region of north-western Italy...

 in 1896. He would hold this position until 1924, when he settled permanently in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 to occupy the chair of public law at the University of Rome

University of Rome La Sapienza

The Sapienza University of Rome, officially Sapienza – Università di Roma, formerly known as Università degli studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a coeducational, autonomous state university in Rome, Italy...

. Mosca held several other academic positions throughout his life.

In 1909 Mosca was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of Italy, in which he served until 1919. During this time, he served as Under-secretary for the Colonies from 1914 until 1916. In 1919, Mosca was nominated life senator

Senator for life

A senator for life is a member of the senate or equivalent upper chamber of a legislature who has life tenure. , 7 Italian Senators out of 322, 4 out of the 47 Burundian Senators and all members of the British House of Lords have lifetime tenure...

 of the Kingdom of Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. He served actively in this capacity until 1926. During the Fascist dictatorship, Mosca retired to teach and research.

During this time, Mosca also worked as a political journalist for the Corriere della Sera

Corriere della Sera

The Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper, published in Milan.It is among the oldest and most reputable Italian newspapers. Its main rivals are Rome's La Repubblica and Turin's La Stampa.- History :...

of Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

 (after 1901) and the Tribuna

Tribuna

Tribuna is a weekly Russian newspaper that focuses largely on industry and the energy sector, published from 1969. Until 1990, the newspaper titled the Sotsialisticheskaya Industriya, then it was renamed into the Rabochaya Tribuna. Since April 1998 for newspaper fixed the current title.Since 2000s...

of Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 (from 1911 to 1921).

Mosca is most famous, however, for his works of political theory. These were (Theory of Governments and Parliamentary Government), published in 1884; (The Ruling Class), published in 1896; and (History of Political Doctrines), published in 1936.

Political Thought

Mosca's enduring contribution to political science

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

 is the observation that all but the most primitive societies are ruled in fact, if not in theory, by a numerical minority. He named this minority the political class

Political class

Political class, or political elite is a concept in comparative political science originally developed by Italian political theorist theory of Gaetano Mosca . It refers to the relatively small group of activists that is highly aware and active in politics, and from whom the national leadership is...

. Although his theory is correctly characterized as elitist, it should be observed that its basis is far different from The Power Elite

The Power Elite

The Power Elite is a book written by the sociologist, C. Wright Mills, in 1956. In it Mills calls attention to the interwoven interests of the leaders of the military, corporate, and political elements of society and suggests that the ordinary citizen is a relatively powerless subject of...

described by, for example, C. Wright Mills

C. Wright Mills

Charles Wright Mills was an American sociologist. Mills is best remembered for his 1959 book The Sociological Imagination in which he lays out a view of the proper relationship between biography and history, theory and method in sociological scholarship...

. Unlike Mills and later sociologists, Mosca aimed to develop a universal theory of political society and his more general theory of the Political Class reflects this aim.

Mosca defined modern elites in term of their superior organisational skills. These organisational skills were especially useful in gaining political power in modern bureaucratic

Bureaucracy

A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...

 society. Nevertheless, Mosca's theory was more liberal than the elitist theory of, for example, Pareto

Pareto

Pareto may refer to:* Vilfredo Pareto , Italian sociologist, economist and philosopher* Paula Pareto , Argentine judokaSeveral things named after Vilfredo Pareto:...

, since in Mosca's conception, elites are not hereditary in nature and peoples from all classes of society can theoretically become "elite". He also adhered to the concept of "the circulation of elites," which is a dialectical theory of constant competition between elites, with one elite group replacing another repeatedly over time.

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