SOURCE: "Vilfredo Pareto: Sociologist or Ideologist?," in The Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 7, No. 1, 1966, pp. 21-38.

In the following essay, Lopreato and Ness dismiss the view of Pareto as a forerunner of modern fascist ideology.

In the history of science it has often happened that a scholar's ideas are denied full recognition because ofthat scholar's real or assumed connection to some controversial ideology. The position accorded to Vilfredo Pareto is one illustration of such practice in present-day sociology. This scholar is often said to have been a "Newton of the Moral World," or altogether a fascist ideologist. So Faris informs us that "The book [The Mind and Society] formulates the implicit philosophy of Italian Fascism, advocating the right of the strong to take what they want without apology or appeal to moral principles." In tracing the development of social thought, Bog ardus devotes an entire chapter to "Pareto and Fascist...