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Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy () is a book by the German-born Italian sociologist Robert Michels, published in 1911 and first introducing the concept of iron law of oligarchy. It is considered one of the classics of social sciences, in particular sociology and political science.
It was translated to Italian as Sociologia del partito politico nella democrazia moderna: studi sulle tendenze oligarchiche degli aggregati politici by Alfredo Polledro in 1912, and then translated from the Italian to English by Eden Paul and Cedar Paul for Hearst's International Library Co. in 1915.
This work analyses the of organizations such as political parties and . Michels's main argument is that all organizations, even those in theory most egalitarian and most committed to democracy – like socialist political parties – are in fact oligarchical, and dominated by a small group of leadership.
The book also provides a first systematic analysis of how a radical political party loses its radical goals under the dynamics of electoral participation. The origins of moderation theory can be found in this analysis.
The iron law of oligarchy is based on the following logic. First, any large scale organization will necessitate the development of bureaucracy for efficient administration. Such leaders will amass resources (superior knowledge control over the formal means of communication with the membership, and the skill in the art of politics) giving them power at the expense of rank and file members.
Second, Michels expressed doubts about whether the rank and file possess the skills necessary to compete with the leaders, a concept he phrased as the "incompetence of the masses". In order to prevent the development of an oligarchy, the regular members must be involved in various activities of the organizations; however, reality of time constraints due to work, family and leisure will reduce the amount of time that most such members are willing to dedicate to active involvement in organizational activities and politics. This is compounded by the rank and file lack of education, and corresponding sophistication of the leadership.
In his case study of his contemporary socialist political party, primarily the German Social Democratic Party. It was a radical organization in his time, fighting for novel concepts such as adult suffrage, free speech, and popular participation in the government. Michels described how their political program was overshadowed by the expansion of the organization favoured by the administrative bureaucracy. This, Michels observed, can be explained thus: "it is far from obvious that the interests of the masses which have combined to form the party will coincide with the interests of the bureaucracy in which the party becomes personified." Michels noted that if an organization dedicated to such principles failed to realize its democratic ideals in its own governance, it is unlikely that other organizations, even less concerned with such lofty goals, would be able to function as democracies.
Sigmund Neumann said that "the study of sociology of political parties have been completely dominated by Robert Michels' iron law of oligarchy." Michels work significantly influenced the views on political party theory by his friend and one of the founding fathers of sociology, Max Weber. A number of other theorists of political parties acknowledged that this work was a major influence on theirs, including James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce, Maurice Duverger, and Robert McKenzie, among others.
Beyond political parties, Michels work was used to explain the functioning of numerous other voluntary organizations from to medical associations. His theories are also seen as being applicable and influential to the study of all organizations in general, as well as theories of bureaucracy.
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