Abstract
Much of the scientific discussion on Pareto—at least from the sociological side—has focused on what is the core of his theory, that is, the relationship between social heterogeneity, circulation of élites and ruling classes. In this paper, the greatest attention is instead paid to the part that I would define as a cornerstone of Pareto’s elitism, namely the one that looks at the mechanisms of production and reproduction of social inequalities and the related processes of mobility. In a sense, the focus of the analysis has shifted from the political dimension (the governing élite) to the social dimension (the non-élite). If the premises of Pareto's analysis are still fundamentally nineteenth century (there is basically a physical, moral, and intellectual diversity among human beings), his reading of the social composition of a country (the reference is often to Italy) it is of remarkable originality, as I try to demonstrate by considering specific social groups, in their family, status and class connotations. In my opinion, a hermeneutical complexity uncommon among his contemporaries emerges, where one can fully breathe the spirit of the twentieth century (enhancement of emotional factors; causality of values; cultural heritage, representations, and beliefs; etc.).
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Notes
The Mind and Society, 1916, from now on: MaS.
Mongardini 1973: 15–16, who bases this assessment mainly on two letters, one addressed to Antonucci (7.12. 1907) and the other to Pantaleoni (15.7.1908). Many Authors have discussed this transition from economics to sociology as a passage from a rationalistic positivism (economic action as rational, logical action) to a borderless social science that integrated economics, sociology, and history (Aspers 2001; Passeron 2000; Scott 2012). Because new tools were needed to understand a world where irrational currents (in Paretian language, non-logical actions) were gaining ground. Cf. Pizzorno 1973.
3 As has been pointed out (Maniscalco1999), already in his degree thesis in physics the axis of the argumentation was constituted by the equilibrium of bodies. See also Donzelli 1997, where he argues that in general in Pareto one can detect an analogy between mechanical phenomena and social phenomena, and above all between mechanics and economics.
On this point, and precisely with reference to Pareto among the great sociologists, see Lukes' interesting and wholly acceptable reflections on the interpretative richness of classical sociology.
«But however many, however few, the elements that we choose to consider, we assume at any rate that they constitute a system, which we may call the ‘social system’; and the nature and properties of that system we propose to investigate» (MaS 2066).
The book comes out in 1951. As is well known, the criticism of this work concern above all its static nature, which does not allow to understand the processes of social change. Parsons reply to this criticism in other publications (1960; 1966), where he attributed to the social system an equilibrium in movement, that is, a capacity to change in response to changed conditions internal or external to the system. The Paretian inspiration seems clear to me.
Not without reason Gert (2004) maintains a different position, according to which positivist philosophy continues to be influential on Pareto also in the second phase of his life.
Pareto however specifies that this centrality of the individual is real only for «our societies» (Id.).
MaS 1262: where Pareto hypothesizes that in the past the elementary social unit was the family, but that then «the individual becomes such a unit». The same problem was faced by Schumpeter (1927), who proposed the use of the expression individual-family, to indicate this specific weight variability between individual and family in the processes of social mobility.
«In societies where the social unit is the family the label worn by the head of the family also benefits all other members…… In our societies, the social unit is the individual; but the place that the individual occupies in society also benefits his wife, his children, his connections, his friends» (MaS 2037).
«So let us make a class of the people who have the highest indices in their branch of activity, and to that class give the name (§119) of élite». (MaS 2031).
For example, in times of crisis, the farmers, due to the greater availability of food, rise on the social ladder compared to those who carry out their activities in the city. It is a sort of upward mobility of the group which drags along all the individual-family who are part of it.
As Giovanni Busino (1966: 33–34) writes in his Introduzione to Scritti sociologici: «history is a bottomless deposit: there Pareto draws all his material. Sometimes one almost gets the impression that he elaborates extremely refined conceptual tools, meticulous classifications only to better orient himself in the increasingly frequent raids through the maze of history».
However, in no society are classes «entirely separated, not even in countries where castes exist» (MaS 2025).
«The governing class is not a homogeneous body. It too has a government—a smaller, choicer class (or else a leader, or a committee) that effectively and practically exercises control» (MaS: 2254).
«The ‘intellectuals’ of Europe … are the worst of rulers… ‘Intellectuals’, to be sure, may be held aloof from public affairs even when Class I residues predominate in a ruling class… the predominance of Class I residues in the ruling class inclines that class to avail itself extensively of the services of ‘intellectuals’, who are, on the other hand, rebuffed by people in whom ‘prejudices’—to use the jargon of our Continental humanitarians—in other words, Class II residues, predominate» (MaS 2229).
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Giovannini, P. Sociological analysis: a cornerstone of Pareto’s political theory?. Int Rev Econ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12232-024-00459-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12232-024-00459-6