Intro Fundamental research question: what has the research on political elites told about the validity of democratic

and elite theory with regard to political leardership? Relates his research to Bryces question why do the best men avoid politics? -> questions involve why, how, who, what Theoretical background can be set as far away as Aristotle, while classic elite theory is placed inbetween Lasswell, V.O. Key, Pareto, Mosca, Michels their debate: is democracy only a myth in the hands of an elite?

There are 4 main areas of controversy within this classic theory: 1. What is the linkage between social status and power? Are some classes unrepresented through the sheer existence of elites? 2. Coherence of elites ? 3 Cs coherence, conscious conspiring vs. non-coherence (modernist approach) 3. Elite consensus (is it not somewhat too linked with 2 to be an individual concern? methodological fallacy?) does it exist? If so where are its boundaries located: around values, around the drive for power etc? 4. Are elites democratic? [discussions can be pushed here again in a historical perspective with the idea of what moves society forward : top-bottom approach (elite theory in a sense) or bottom-top? Futility vs jeopardy]

Activists elite stratum at the heart of the party system Also called mid-level elites less than 1% of the population in general; Behavioralist paradigm relevant for elite study and for the activists in particular; 1956- Detroit study role of agency personal impact of activists; relevance of ideology for them in the recruitment process. Yet, on a more general level the inter-relationship between agency-contingency-past-dependency enters into force not only agency, for instance the authors shows that at some point personal interest does gain primacy over ideology even for the activists ->tends to validate the classic theory of drive for power! Is democracy unthinkable save in terms of the parties? At first glance the statistics go very much against the classic elite theory, with at best some conjectural evidence overlapping.

-data shows a socially open elite; yet, the durability of the organisations seem to validate to some extent the classic theory -> again some incoherence in the study comes to the forefront.