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Robert Michels, socialism, and modernity
- Author / Creator
- Available as
- Online
- Summary
-
Robert Michels (1876−1936) is best known for his 1911 book Political Parties, which is still a standard reference in political science as a work that propounds an 'iron law of oligarchy' that gover...
Robert Michels (1876−1936) is best known for his 1911 book Political Parties, which is still a standard reference in political science as a work that propounds an 'iron law of oligarchy' that governs the organizational evolution of democratic political parties. The work was closely informed by Michels' engagement with the German Social Democratic Party in the early 1900s, but also by his involvement in radical politics in France and Italy in this period, and by his interest in a range of intellectual and social movements-including feminism, nationalism, racial theory, and the emerging disciplines of sociology and political science. This new study, using archival and printed sources hitherto overlooked in earlier works on Michels, presents a new interpretation of Michels' intellectual evolution which contests previous arguments which have sought to explain Michels as a disillusioned adherent of ideas of direct democracy or as an extremist moving from revolutionary syndicalism to fascism. The biographical and intellectual influences on Michels are shown to be more complex, and more transnational, than such schematic explanations have allowed.
Details
- Creator
- Andrew G.Bonnell
- Format
- Books
- Language
- English
- Publication
-
- First edition
- Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2022]
- ©2022
- Physical Details
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- 1 online resource (288 pages) : illustrations (colour)
- data file
- ISBNs
- 9780191968051, 0191968056, 9780192871848, 9780192871848
- OCLC
- on1352406433
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Introduction -- PART I: MICHELS AND SOCIALIST PARTIES -- 1. Robert Michels, a Career: From Young Radical to Elite Theorist -- 2. Michels and German Social Democracy: Activism and Ethical Superiority -- From Marburg to Dresden -- Agitation and Organization -- Disillusionment after Bremen -- From Participant to Outside Academic Critic of German Social Democracy -- Analysing Oligarchy: Towards Political Parties -- 3. Socialism plus Temperament: Michels and Italian Socialists -- 4. Michels and French Socialists and Syndicalists -- PART II: MICHELS, MODERN IDEAS, AND MOVEMENTS -- 5. Feminism and the Sexual Politics of a New Century -- Feminism -- The Sexual Question -- 6. Intellectuals, Masses, and Leaders -- Intellectuals -- Masses -- Leaders -- 7. Internationalism, Patriotism, Nationalism -- 8. Ethnicity and Race -- 9. Michels and the Modern -- 10. Conclusions -- Bibliography -- Index