Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy

Table of contents

• Title Page 3
• Author's Preface 5
• Contents 9
• Introduction 13
• Chapter 1 - Democratic Aristocracy and Aristocratic Democracy 43
• Chapter 2 - The Ethical Embellishment of Social Struggles 52
• Part One/Leadership in Democratic Organizations 59
• A. Technical and Administrative Causes of Leadership 61
• Chapter 2 - Mechanical and Technical Impossibility of Direct Government by the Masses 63
• Chapter 3 - The Modern Democratic Party as a Fighting Party, Dominated by Militarist Ideas and Methods 78
• B. Psychological Causes of Leadership 81
• Chapter 2 - The Need for Leadership Felt by the Mass 85
• Chapter 3 - The Political Gratitude of the Masses 92
• Chapter 4 - The Cult of Veneration Among the Masses 93
• Chapter 5 - Accessory Qualities Requisite to Leadership 98
• Chapter 6 - Accessory Peculiarities of the Masses 105
• C. Intellectual Factors 107
• Part Two/Autocratic Tendencies of Leaders 115
• Chapter 1 - The Stability of Leadership 117
• Chapter 2 - The Financial Power of the Leaders and of the Party 129
• Chapter 3 - The Leaders and the Press 149
• Chapter 4 - The Position of the Leaders in Relation to the Masses in Actual Practice 153
• Chapter 5 - The Struggle Between the Leaders and the Masses 167
• Chapter 6 - The Struggle Among the Leaders Themselves 172
• Chapter 7 - Bureaucracy. Centralizing and Decentralizing Tendencies 188
• Part Three/The Exercise of Power and Its Psychological Reaction Upon the Leaders 203
• Chapter 1 - Psychological Metamorphosis of the Leaders 205
• Chapter 2 - Bonapartist Ideology 212
• Chapter 3 - Identification of the Party with the Leader ("Le Parti C'Est Moi") 220
• Part Four/Social Analysis of Leadership 225
• Chapter 1 - Introductory. the Class Struggle and Its Disintegrating Influence Upon the Bourgeoisie 227
• Chapter 2 - Analysis of the Bourgeois Elements in the Socialist Leadership 238
• Chapter 3 - Social Changes Resulting from Organization 254
• Chapter 4 - The Need for the Differentiation of the Working Class 271
• Chapter 5 - Labor Leaders of Proletarian Origin 277
• Chapter 6 - Intellectuals, and the Need for Them in the Working-Class Parties 293
• Part Five/Attempts to Restrict the Influence of the Leaders 305
• Chapter 1 - The Referendum 307
• Chapter 2 - The Postulate of Renunciation 312
• Chapter 3 - Syndicalism as Prophylactic 317
• Chapter 4 - Anarchism as Prophylactic 325
• Part Six/Synthesis: the Oligarchical Tendencies of Organization 331
• Chapter 1 - The Conservative Basis of Organization 333
• Chapter 2 - Democracy and the Iron Law of Oligarchy 342
• Chapter 3 - Party-Life in War-Time 357
• Chapter 4 - Final Considerations 364
• Index of Names 373

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