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The UnPopulist ·For the curious

Can Elite Rule Be Reconciled with Democracy?

by Matt McManus

Published 2026-09-19 16:22:21+00:00

If a small group of people always ends up in charge, is it still a democracy?

0:00 / 15:35 · Narrator Rasalgethi

Context

A review published in The UnPopulist on 19 September 2026 points to a contradiction built into modern politics. Democratic societies are supposed to be run by the public, yet they always end up producing a small class of elites who do the actual governing. Instead of treating this as a failure of the system, the review shifts to a more practical question. If a ruling class is simply a normal feature of government, how do citizens force those leaders to respond to their needs? It is a quiet challenge to standard assumptions about political equality.

Show notes

A review of historical elite theory, examining how late 19th and early 20th-century political thinkers reconciled the reality of a ruling class with the ideal of equality. It surveys writers from across the political spectrum who accepted that a small group will always hold most of the power. Building on their work, it proposes a model of continuous reform where citizens and political parties constantly challenge elites to keep them responsive.

Read on The UnPopulist →