SOURCE: "Mosca," in The Anti-Democratic Sources of Elite Theory: Pareto, Mosca, Michels, SAGE Publications, 1977, pp. 14-20.

In the following essay, Nye discusses the evolution of elite theory in Italy, focusing on Mosca 's understanding and interpretation of Italian political thought.

The Italian postrisorgimento provided fertile soil for the nurturing of elite theory. For Gaetano Mosca and Vilfredo Pareto the melancholy years following Italy's unification were the context for the characteristic personal disillusionment that invariably figures in the biographies of the men who contributed to elite thought. By the mid-1860s the words and deeds of the Risorgimento had taken on a nearly mythical significance in Italian cultural life. The glorification of personal courage and the principles of idealized liberalism associated with the tortuous process of national unity were so entrenched in Italian intellectual life that they continued to serve as an ideal touchstone for Italians of all political...