Robert Michels, Political Sociology and the Future of Democracy - 9781138514263

Taylor & Francis

Robert Michels, Political Sociology and the Future of DemocracyAuthor(s): Juan Linz\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: Routledge\nISBN-13: 9781138514263, 978-1138514263\nSynopsis\nThese essays by the brilliant historian of political science Juan Linz comprise a remarkable intellectual review of the life and work of Robert Michels, his major book Political Parties, and the dimensions of democracy as a functioning system.\n\nLinz elucidates the importance of Michels in a way that offers more than a mechanical view of political parties as some sort of precisely ordered system of authority and influence. Instead, Michels offers a view of politics that is bottom up and untidy, what he calls a \""reciprocal deference structure.\"" Michels is not simply the father of the iron law of oligarchy, but the idea of politics as a less than orderly network of responsiveness, responsibility, and accountability. Linz demonstrates, with magisterial power, w.