Iron Law of Oligarchy

Michels's study and proposition

Michels (1911, 1915) studied the German Social Democratic Party and trade unions, then regarded as the most democratic organizations of the day. He argued that as mass parties grew and members could no longer decide matters directly, full-time leaders and bureaucratic staffs emerged, and leaders who controlled information, organizational skills and the party press drifted away from ordinary members. Leaders also came to care about the survival of the organization and their own positions, choosing moderate courses over revolutionary goals. Michels called the tendency an iron law to stress that it was inescapable.

Theoretical background

Michels's argument is closely tied to Mosca's (1896) elite theory, which holds that in every society an organized minority rules the majority, and to the analysis of bureaucracy by his mentor Weber (1922). Just as Weber saw rational bureaucratization of modern organizations as an inevitable trend, Michels saw its consequence as the concentration of power within democratic organizations. Hands (1971) and Linz (2006) traced the influence of Michels's party study on party sociology and democratic theory. The proposition became a starting point for later research on parties, including that of Duverger.

Counterexamples and modern tests

Lipset, Trow and Coleman (1956) offered a counterexample in the International Typographical Union, which remained democratic for decades through two institutionalized competing factions, showing the law is not exceptionless. Zald and Ash (1966) argued that social movement organizations do not necessarily become conservative, and Rucht (1999) and Voss and Sherman (2000) showed that organizational structure and leadership turnover can break the law. Leach (2005) refined oligarchy into a measurable concept, and Tolbert and Hiatt (2009) reassessed Michels's relevance for twenty-first-century organization studies. Shaw and Hill (2014), analyzing hundreds of wiki communities, reported that power concentration resembling the iron law also arises in online peer production.

FAQ

What is the iron law of oligarchy in simple terms?

Even a group that starts with everyone participating equally will, as it grows, see a small set of organizers gain power and come to run the organization.

Does the iron law always hold?

No. Counterexamples include unions with institutionalized rival factions and organizations with frequent leadership turnover, and today it is usually understood as a strong tendency rather than an inescapable law.

Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26

References

1. Michels, R. (1911). Zur Soziologie des Parteiwesens in der modernen Demokratie. Leipzig: Werner Klinkhardt.
2. Michels, R. (1915). Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy (E. Paul & C. Paul, Trans.). New York: Hearst's International Library.
3. Weber, M. (1922). Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr.
4. Mosca, G. (1896). Elementi di scienza politica. Turin: Fratelli Bocca.
5. Lipset, S. M., Trow, M. A., & Coleman, J. S. (1956). Union Democracy: The Internal Politics of the International Typographical Union. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
6. Linz, J. J. (2006). Robert Michels, Political Sociology, and the Future of Democracy. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
7. Rucht, D. (1999). Linking organization and mobilization: Michels's iron law of oligarchy reconsidered. Mobilization, 4(2), 151–169.
8. Voss, K., & Sherman, R. (2000). Breaking the iron law of oligarchy: Union revitalization in the American labor movement. American Journal of Sociology, 106(2), 303–349.
9. Leach, D. K. (2005). The iron law of what again? Conceptualizing oligarchy across organizational forms. Sociological Theory, 23(3), 312–337.
10. Shaw, A., & Hill, B. M. (2014). Laboratories of oligarchy? How the iron law extends to peer production. Journal of Communication, 64(2), 215–238.
11. Tolbert, P. S., & Hiatt, S. R. (2009). On organizations and oligarchies: Michels in the twenty-first century. In P. S. Adler (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Sociology and Organization Studies (pp. 174–199). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
12. Zald, M. N., & Ash, R. (1966). Social movement organizations: Growth, decay and change. Social Forces, 44(3), 327–341.
13. Hands, G. (1971). Roberto Michels and the study of political parties. British Journal of Political Science, 1(2), 155–172.