Mosca, Gaetano (1858–1941)

Italian jurist, politician, and political scientist. His best-known work Elementi di scienza politica (1896) (translated as The Ruling Class in 1939) set out his theory of the political elite. In all societies, the majority is ruled by a minority in the upper stratum of society and, in the endless struggle for power, the membership of the elite political class is determined by natural selection. Although his theory of the elite appears to justify fascism, Mosca spurned both Mussolini and Hitler.

He was elected a deputy in the Italian parliament in 1908 and became a life senator in 1919. He was a professor at the University of Rome from 1923 and taught both there and at the universities of Palermo and Turin.