Gaetano Mosca

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Gaetano Mosca (April 1, 1858 Palermo, Italy – November 8, 1941 Rome, Italy) was an Italian political scientist, journalist and public servant. He is credited with developing the Theory of Elitism and the doctrine of the Political Class and is one of the three members constituting the Italian School of Elitists together with Vilfredo Pareto and Robert Michels.

Life

Mosca earned a degree in law from the University of Palermo in 1881. In 1887 he moved to Rome and took a position as editor of proceedings of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy. Having been taught occasionally at Palermo and Rome, Mosca became chair of constitutional law at the University of Turin in 1896. He would hold this position until 1924, when he settled permanently in Rome to occupy the chair of public law at the University of Rome. 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 of the Kingdom of Italy. 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 of Milan (after 1901) and the Tribuna of Rome (from 1911 to 1921).

Mosca is most famous, however, for his works of political theory. These were Sulla teorica dei governi e sul governo parlamentare (Theory of Governments and Parlementary Government), published in 1884; Elementi di scienza politica (The Ruling Class), published in 1896; and Storia delle dottrine politiche (History of Political Doctrines), published in 1936.

Political Thought

Mosca's enduring contribution to political science 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. Although his theory is correctly characterized as elitist, it should be observed that its basis is far different from The Power Elite described by, for example, C. Wright Mills. 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 elites in term of their superior organisational skills.He felt that there are certain individuals("elite") in the society which have better organisational skills than the rest of masses.It is because of the organisational skills they are able to capture the political power.His theory was more democratic than the elitist theory of Pareto as these elites are not hereditary in nature and even peoples from working class can also become "elite".He also adhered to the concept of "circulation of elites" which says that there is constant competition between elites and one elite group replaces other over a period of time.

References

Albertoni, Ettore, Mosca and the Theory of Elitism. Oxford: Basil Blackwell (1987). ISBN 0631152547

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