Beyond Right and Left : Democratic Elitism in Mosca and Gramsci

by Maurice A . Finocchiaro

• ISBN13: 9780300075359
• ISBN10: 0300075359
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 1999-03-11
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

Two Italian writers, Gaetano Mosca and Antonio Gramsci, have been very influential in twentieth-century political thought, the first cast as a thoroughgoing conservative, the second as the model of a humanistic Marxist. The author of this provocative book -- the first systematic study of the connection between the two men -- maintains that they are closer to each other than is commonly supposed -- that they in fact belong to the same political tradition of democratic elitism. Maurice A. Finocchiaro argues that Gramsci's political theory is a constructive critique of Mosca's and that the key common element is the attempt to combine democracy and elitism in a theoretical system that defines them not as opposite but as compatible and interdependent. Finocchiaro finds that a critical examination of the major works of the two men demonstrates their shared belief in the viability of democratic elitism and undermines the importance of the distinction between right and left.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction: Right, Left, and Classic Approaches to Gramsci	1	(14)
1. Gramsci as a Political Theorist: Back to Mosca	15	(7)
2. Mosca's Political Science: Democratic Elitism and Balanced Pluralism	22	(40)
3. Gramsci on Mosca: Methodological and Theoretical Criticism	62	(22)
4. Gramsci's Elitism: An Extension of Mosca's Law	84	(30)
5. Gramsci's Democracy: An Application of Mosca's Concept	114	(30)
6. Liberalism and Anti-Liberalism in Mosca and Gramsci	144	(35)
7. Mosca and Gramsci on Freemasonary and Fascism: An Emblematic Case	179	(22)
Conclusion: Beyond Right and Left	201	(22)
Appendix: Concordance of the Critical Edition and English Translations	223	(18)
Notes	241	(24)
Bibliography	265	(32)
Index	297