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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

What, according to Pareto, are the basic characteristics of elites? Discuss.

  • UPSC 2018
  • Politics and Society

Vilfredo Pareto (The Mind and Society, 1916) started from a single premise: people are unequal physically, intellectually and morally. His elite is therefore defined formally, by measured excellence, not by virtue or birth. Its characteristics follow from that premise and from his theory of residues, the lasting non-logical sentiments behind human action.

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  • Basic characteristics
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  • Critical remarks
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