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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

According to Mills, “Elites rule in institutional terms rather than psychological terms.” Comment.

  • UPSC 2020
  • Politics and Society

The statement sums up how C. Wright Mills (The Power Elite, 1956) broke with classical elite theory. Vilfredo Pareto and Gaetano Mosca traced elite rule to superior qualities: cunning, force or organising talent. Mills traced it to positions: people rule because they occupy the top of institutions that concentrate power, not because they are exceptional.

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