Pareto's Theory of Elite Cycles: A Reconsideration and Application

Abstract

This chapter reconsiders Vilfredo Pareto's theory of elite cycles and explores its application to Western elites during the hundred years since he wrote, paying particular attention to American and British elites prior to the onset of crisis in 2008. Governing elites embody wide and complex patronage networks and practices, as well as a psychosocial propensity and consequent style of governance tending to rely on cunning and persuasion or determination and force. Long cycles begin and end with definitive collapses of governing elites and much of the socioeconomic and sociopolitical orders they have overseen. Pareto was fully aware that the contours and actions of governing elites differ greatly between societies and eras and in its details history never repeats itself. Pareto's theory of elite cycles is difficult to apply because it is exceedingly general, whereas concrete patterns it purports to explain are intricate and often ambiguous.