Seven early signs Democrats could have a better-than-expected night
The situation comes as the Democratic party faces an uphill battle in the 2022 midterm elections.
Stay updated with breaking news from While Michels. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
The situation comes as the Democratic party faces an uphill battle in the 2022 midterm elections.
Robert Michels's seminal treatise Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy (1911) offers an important theoretical exposition of the core belief that underlies populist politics: namely, that the elites (inevitably) capture democracy from the common people. Michels's disillusionment with the elitist betrayal of democracy led the sociologist to embrace Mussolini's fascism, a biographical note that seems to validate contemporary fears about populism's logical endpoint. Our answer to the theoretical challenge raised by Michels's "iron law of olig...