Gaetano Mosca

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Gaetano Mosca

Gaetano Mosca (born April 1, 1858 in Palermo , † November 8, 1941 in Rome ) was an Italian lawyer, political scientist and sociologist . He became known as an elite theorist .

Life

Mosca started out as a constitutional lawyer, but then turned to political sociology . He had received his doctorate at the University of Palermo and was there, and from 1888 at the University of Rome , private lecturer in constitutional law . From 1896 he had a professorship at the University of Turin . From 1914 to 1916 he was Undersecretary of State in the Italian Colonial Ministry, in 1919 he was appointed Senator of the Kingdom of Italy . From 1923 to 1933 he finally taught as a professor for the history of political theories and institutions at the University of Rome. At the same time he advised the Colonial Ministry until 1927. He ended his journalistic activities for the Corriere della Sera , which he had started in 1900, in 1924.

Although Mosca had always been skeptical about modern party democracy, he became an opponent of fascism after Mussolini came to power . In 1925 he gave a speech in the Senato del Regno , in which he criticized the regime's abolition of the separation of powers and defended the free parliamentary constitutional order. Then he retired from political life. After his retirement in 1933, he lived in seclusion and was ignored by the fascist regime.

Work and effect

The term " political class " comes from Mosca . His analyzes show many similarities with those of Vilfredo Pareto , who persistently did not quote him. In contrast to Pareto (who is completely skeptical in this respect), Mosca's position allows a vision of elite rule that is compatible with democracy . Mosca also rejects social Darwinism .

Mosca's position is reminiscent of the Marxist interpretation of the state as a function of a class . But this is where the similarities end: Mosca rejects Marx's economism as well as the class struggle and the vision of a classless society that he dequalifies as a utopia .

Mosca's works were u. a. by Robert Michels (the " iron law of oligarchy ") and C. Wright Mills (the " power elite " power elite ) was added.

Major works

  • 1884 theory of forms of rule and parliamentarianism (describes the principle of minority rule)
  • 1895 (German 1950) The ruling class (in the foreground is the principle of the unequal distribution of power )

literature

  • Ettore A. Albertoni: Mosca and the Theory of Elitism. Basil Blackwell, Oxford 1987, ISBN 0-631-15254-7 .
  • Maurice A. Finocchiaro: Beyond Right and Left. Democratic Elitism in Mosca and Gramsci . Yale University Press, New Haven CT et al. 1999, ISBN 0-300-07535-9 .
  • James H. Meisel: The Myth of the Ruling Class. Gaetano Mosca and the elite. In addition to the 1st German translation of the final version of his theory of the ruling class. Econ-Verlag, Düsseldorf et al. 1962.

Web links

Commons : Gaetano Mosca  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, biographical information is based on: Gottfried Eisermann, Mosca, Gateano. In: Wilhelm Bernsdorf and Horst Knospe (eds.): Internationales Soziologenlexikon , Volume 1, articles on sociologists who died by the end of 1969, 2nd, revised edition, Enke, Stuttgart 1980, p. 300 f.
  2. ↑ Ursula Hoffmann-Lange: Gateano Mosca. Elementi di Scienza Politica, Bari 1895 . In: Steffen Kailitz (Ed.): Key works of political science . Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-14005-6 , pp. 315–319, here p. 315.
personal data
SURNAME Mosca, Gaetano
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian lawyer and political scientist and sociologist, elite theorist
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Palermo
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 1941
Place of death Rome