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Sociology Of Elites: A Sociological Theory Of Elites

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Sociology Of Elites: A Sociological Theory Of Elites
CHAPTER-2
SOCIOLOGY OF ELITES: A THEORETICAL DISCUSSION

2.1 Introduction:
The word ‘elite’ has its roots in the notion of the ‘elect’ , the few who are chosen by God to be the selected membes of the society (Scott 1990: ix). During the eighteenth century, ‘elite’ replaced ‘elect’ in common usage, referring to those of elevated social status. It was Vilfredo Pareto who first turned this word into sociological analysis, by placing it within the framework of his sociological and political theory. In this way the meaning of the word was transformed into that of small and powerful group (ibid: ix). The origin of the concept of ‘elite’ can be traced from the writings of italian theorists Vilfredo Pareto and Gaetano Mosca who had set out to provide
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power to be defined? Scott is well cognizant of the centrality of this issue: Elites are most functionally perceived, next, in relation to the grasping and employing of power. This implicitly raises a more setback, as power itself is a much-contested concept and has been described in countless disparate approachs. Power, in its most complete sense, can be perceived as the creation of causal results, and communal power is an agent's intentional use of causal states to alter the conduct of supplementary agents. At its simplest, next, communal power is a bipartite relation amid two agents, one of whom is the 'principal' or paramount agent, and the supplementary the 'subaltern' or subordinate agent. The main has or exerts power, as the subaltern is altered by the power of a principal” …show more content…
H., (1987), Social Mobility and Class Structure (originally 1980), Oxford: Clarendon Press.
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