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41-490: It was translated to Italian as Sociologia del partito politico nella democrazia moderna: studi sulle tendenze oligarchiche degli aggregati politici by Alfredo Polledro in 1912, and then translated from the Italian to English by Eden Paul and Cedar Paul for Hearst's International Library Co. in 1915. This work analyses the power structures of organizations such as political parties and trade unions . Michels's main argument

82-583: A Times correspondent during the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895. Between 1895 and 1912, he practised medicine in Japan, China, Perak , Singapore, Alderney and England. He was the founder and editor of the Nagasaki Press , 1897–99. By 1903, the family had moved to Alderney , where his wife later established a private nursing home; however, the couple separated about this time. From 1907 to 1919, he

123-412: A characteristic of any and all complex social systems . Such social systems have to be organized along bureaucratic lines, managed by departments staffed with non-elected officials, and bureaucracies inevitably develop oligarchies. Michels concluded that in any complex organization, and such dominate the modern world, it is impossible to escape domination of oligarchy - a conclusion which became known as

164-509: A class is a proletarian or a proletaire . Marxist philosophy regards the proletariat under conditions of capitalism as an exploited class ⁠ forced to accept meager wages in return for operating the means of production , which belong to the class of business owners , the bourgeoisie . Karl Marx argued that this capitalist oppression gives the proletariat common economic and political interests that transcend national boundaries, impelling them to unite and to take over power from

205-521: A family." Although explicitly included by name in the Comitia Centuriata ( Centuriate Assembly ), proletarii were the lowest class, largely deprived of voting rights. Not only did proletarii have less voting "weight" in the various elections, but since voting ran hierarchically starting with the highest social ranks, a majority could be reached early and their votes never even taken. Late Roman historians such as Livy vaguely described

246-531: A higher social class. The contention with feudalism began once the merchants and guild artisans grew in numbers and power. Once they organized themselves, they began opposing the fees imposed on them by the nobles and clergy. This development led to new ideas and eventually established the Bourgeoisie class which Marx opposes. Commerce began to change the form of production and markets began to shift in order to support larger production and profits. This change led to

287-475: A proletarian class consciousness , rather than having proletarian social attributes (such as being an industrial worker). In this way of defining the proletariat, a proletarian class consciousness could be developed through a subjective standpoint with political education supplied by the Chinese Communist Party . This conception of the proletariat allowed for a Marxist theoretical framing under which

328-451: A series of revolutions by the bourgeois which resulted in capitalism. Marx argues that this same model can and should be applied to the fight for the proletariat. Forming unions similar to how the merchants and artisans did will establish enough power to enact change. Ultimately, Marx's theory of the proletarian's struggle would eventually lead to the fall of capitalism and the emergence of a new mode of production, socialism. Marx argued that

369-459: A socialist reading public, and they also worked together to translate from German, French, Italian and Russian. Proletariat The proletariat ( / ˌ p r oʊ l ɪ ˈ t ɛər i ə t / ; from Latin proletarius  'producing offspring') is the social class of wage-earners , those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such

410-399: A thesis about incompatibility of democracy and large-scale social organizations. He observed that contrary to democratic and egalitarian principles, both society in general, and specific organizations in particular are dominated by the leadership – the oligarchy . This, according to Michels, was not because of any particular weakness of a particular society or organization in question, but

451-408: Is based on the exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie: the workers, who own no means of production, must use the property of others to produce goods and services and to earn their living. Workers cannot rent the means of production (e.g. a factory or department store) to produce on their own account; rather, capitalists hire workers, and the goods or services produced become the property of

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492-460: Is much less useful, but requires hundreds of hours of mining and cutting, and is therefore expensive. The same goes for the workers' labor power: it is valued not for the amount of wealth it produces, but for the amount of labor necessary to keep the workers fed, housed, sufficiently trained, and able to raise children as new workers. On the other hand, capitalists earn their wealth not as a function of their personal labor, which may even be null, but by

533-464: Is that all organizations, even those in theory most egalitarian and most committed to democracy – like socialist political parties – are in fact oligarchical , and dominated by a small group of leadership. The book also provides a first systematic analysis of how a radical political party loses its radical goals under the dynamics of electoral participation. The origins of moderation theory can be found in this analysis. Michels put forward

574-480: Is to sell their labour power for a wage or salary . Marxist theory only vaguely defines the borders between the proletariat and adjacent social classes. In the socially superior, less progressive direction are the lower petty bourgeoisie , such as small shopkeepers, who rely primarily on self-employment at an income comparable to an ordinary wage. Intermediate positions are possible, where wage-labor for an employer combines with self-employment. In another direction,

615-610: The Comitia Centuriata as a popular assembly of early Rome composed of centuriae , voting units representing classes of citizens according to wealth. This assembly, which usually met on the Campus Martius to discuss public policy, designated the military duties of Roman citizens. One of the reconstructions of the Comitia Centuriata features 18 centuriae of cavalry, and 170 centuriae of infantry divided into five classes by wealth, plus 5 centuriae of support personnel called adsidui , one of which represented

656-406: The proletarii . In battle, the cavalry brought their horses and arms, the top infantry class full arms and armour, the next two classes less, the fourth class only spears, the fifth slings, while the assisting adsidui held no weapons. If unanimous, the cavalry and top infantry class were enough to decide an issue. A deeper reconstruction incorporating social backgrounds found that the senators,

697-484: The German Social Democratic Party . It was radical organization in his time, fighting for novel concepts such as adult suffrage , free speech , and popular participation in the government. Michels described how their political program was overshadowed by the expansion of the organization favoured by the administrative bureaucracy. This, Michels observed, can be explained thus: "it is far from obvious that

738-482: The capitalist class , and eventually to create a socialist society free from class distinctions. The proletarii constituted a social class of Roman citizens who owned little or no property. The name presumably originated with the census, which Roman authorities conducted every five years to produce a register of citizens and their property, which determined their military duties and voting privileges. Those who owned 11,000 assēs (coins) or fewer fell below

779-425: The iron law of oligarchy . "Who says organization, says oligarchy" The iron law of oligarchy is based on the following logic. First, any large scale organization will necessitate the development of bureaucracy for efficient administration. Such leaders will amass resources (superior knowledge control over the formal means of communication with the membership, and the skill in the art of politics) giving them power at

820-441: The lumpenproletariat or "rag-proletariat", which Marx considers a retrograde class, live in the informal economy outside of legal employment: the poorest outcasts of society such as beggars, tricksters, entertainers, buskers, criminals and prostitutes. Socialist parties have often argued over whether they should organize and represent all the lower classes, or only the wage-earning proletariat. According to Marxism, capitalism

861-531: The study of all organizations in general , as well as theories of bureaucracy. Michels' argument has been criticized for being over-deterministic and overly critical of bureaucracy. Eden Paul Maurice Eden Paul (27 September 1865, in Sturminster Marshall – 1 December 1944) was a British socialist activist, physician, writer and translator. Paul was the younger son of the publisher Charles Kegan Paul , and Margaret Colvile . His mother

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902-424: The capitalist, who sells them at the market. Part of the net selling price pays the workers' wages (variable costs); a second part renews the means of production (constant costs, capital investment); while the third part is consumed by the capitalist class, split between the capitalist's personal profit and fees to other owners (rents, taxes, interest on loans, etc.). The struggle over the first part (wage rates) puts

943-421: The early 19th century, many Western European liberal scholars—who dealt with social sciences and economics—pointed out the socio-economic similarities of the modern rapidly growing industrial worker class and the classic proletarians. One of the earliest analogies can be found in the 1807 paper of French philosopher and political scientist Hugues Felicité Robert de Lamennais . Later it was translated to English with

984-409: The expense of rank and file members. "Large-scale organizations give their officers a near monopoly of power" Second, Michels expressed doubts about whether the rank and file possess the skills necessary to compete with the leaders, a concept he phrased as the "incompetence of the masses". In order to prevent the development of an oligarchy, the regular members must be involved in various activities of

1025-577: The first project of the philanthropically-motivated East End Dwellings Company , and in 1886 joined Charles Booth 's Board of Statistical Inquiry investigating poverty in London. In 1890, he married Margaret Jessie Macdonald, née Boag, a ward sister at the London Hospital. From 1892–4, he taught at a university in Japan, where his daughter Hester was born in 1893. He travelled with the Japanese army as

1066-655: The individuals who depended on their labor power. Marx argues that these relations between the exploiters and exploited results in different modes of production and the successive stages in history. These modes of production in which mankind gains power over nature is distinguished into five different systems: the Primitive Community, Slave State, Feudal State, Capitalist System, and finally the Socialist Society. The transition between these systems were all due to an increase in civil unrest among those who felt oppressed by

1107-488: The interests of the masses which have combined to form the party will coincide with the interests of the bureaucracy in which the party becomes personified." Michels noted that if an organization dedicated to such principles failed to realize its democratic ideals in its own governance, it is unlikely that other organizations, even less concerned with such lofty goals, would be able to function as democracies. "The socialists might conquer, but not socialism, which would perish in

1148-429: The juridical relation of their property to the means of production (e.g. owning a factory or farmland). Marx argues that history is made by man and not destiny. The instruments of production and the working class that use the tools in order to produce are referred to as the moving forces of society. Over time, this developed into the levels of social class where the owners of resources joined to squeeze productivity out of

1189-399: The knights, and the first class held 88 out of 193 centuriae , the two lowest propertied classes held only 30 centuriae , but the proletarii held only 1. Musicians, by way of comparison, had more voting power despite far fewer citizens, with 2 centuriae . "[F]or the voting to reach the proletarii a very profound split in the elite and the higher classes was required." In

1230-651: The lowest category for military service, and their children— prōlēs (offspring)—were listed instead of property; hence the name proletarius (producer of offspring). Roman citizen-soldiers paid for their own horses and arms, and fought without payment for the commonwealth , but the only military contribution of a proletarius was his children, the future Roman citizens who could colonize conquered territories. Officially, propertyless citizens were called capite censi because they were "persons registered not as to their property...but simply as to their existence as living individuals, primarily as heads ( caput ) of

1271-657: The moment of its adherents' triumph" Michels book quickly became a classic of social sciences . His theory was quickly vindicated on a large scale during First World War , when most socialist parties of that time endorsed the war policies of their respective governments, thus showing that their corresponding party leaders put the short-term goals of organizational survival (allying with the state) over doctrinal points of " proletariat against bourgeoisie ". Sigmund Neumann said that "the study of sociology of political parties have been completely dominated by Robert Michels' iron law of [oligarchy]." Michels work significantly influenced

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1312-518: The organizations; however, reality of time constraints due to work, family and leisure will reduce the amount of time that most such members are willing to dedicate to active involvement in organizational activities and politics. This is compounded by the rank and file lack of education, and corresponding sophistication of the leadership. "The masses are incapable of taking part in the decision-making process and desire strong leadership." In his case study of his contemporary socialist parties , primarily

1353-414: The proletariat and bourgeoisie into irreconcilable conflict, as market competition pushes wages inexorably to the minimum necessary for the workers to survive and continue working. The second part, called capitalized surplus value, is used to renew or increase the means of production ( capital ), either in quantity or quality. The second and third parts are known as surplus value , the difference between

1394-473: The proletariat would inevitably displace the capitalist system with the dictatorship of the proletariat , abolishing the social relationships underpinning the class system and then developing into a communist society in which "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all". During the Chinese Communist Revolution , the concept of the proletariat emphasized having

1435-598: The revolution could address the relative weakness of industrial working classes in China. Exactly what constituted a proper proletarian class consciousness was subject to intellectual and political debate. Marx argued that each social class had its characteristic culture and politics. The socialist states stemming from the Russian Revolution championed and created the official version of proletarian culture . Some have argued that this assessment has become outdated with

1476-494: The term proletariat in his socio-political theory ( Marxism ) to describe a progressive working class untainted by private property and capable of revolutionary action to topple capitalism and abolish social classes , leading society to ever higher levels of prosperity and justice. Marx defined the proletariat as the social class having no significant ownership of the means of production (factories, machines, land, mines, buildings, vehicles) and whose only means of subsistence

1517-491: The title "Modern Slavery". Swiss liberal economist and historian Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi was the first to apply the proletariat term to the working class created under capitalism, and whose writings were frequently cited by Karl Marx . Marx most likely encountered the term while studying the works of Sismondi. Marx, who studied Roman law at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin , used

1558-552: The views on political party theory by his friend and one of the founding fathers of sociology, Max Weber . A number of other theorists of political parties acknowledged that this work was a major influence on theirs, including James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce , Maurice Duverger , and Robert McKenzie , among others. Beyond political parties, Michels work was used to explain the functioning of numerous other voluntary organizations from trade unions to medical associations . His theories are also seen as being applicable and influential to

1599-407: The wealth the proletariat produce and the wealth they consume. Marxists argue that new wealth is created through labor applied to natural resources . The commodities that proletarians produce and capitalists sell are valued not for their usefulness, but for the amount of labour embodied in them: for example, air is essential but requires no labor to produce, and is therefore free; while a diamond

1640-696: Was a member of the ILP where he promoted eugenics , and worked for the French Socialist Party from 1912 to 1914. He later joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). He remained active in the CPGB at least until 1928. In 1932 he retired to live on the French Riviera . In 1939, aged 74, he was badly injured in a motor accident near Grasse . With his second wife, Cedar Paul , he wrote several books for

1681-458: Was one of 12 daughters born to Andrew Wedderburn-Colvile (1779–1856) and the Hon. Mary Louisa Eden, fifth daughter of William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland . He was educated at University College School and University College London ; he continued his medical studies at London Hospital . In the mid-1880s he helped Beatrice Webb and Ella Pycroft run Katharine Buildings , model dwellings that were

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