This work has been declared by the AHA board as historic, and is superseded by Humanist Manifesto III. The Manifesto is a product of many minds. It was designed to represent a developing point of view, not a new creed.
Re: the iron law of oligarchy Aug22-09, 10:47 PM JRDunassigned: The iron law of oligarchy is a political theory, first developed by the German syndicalist sociologist Robert Michels in his 1911 book, Political Parties. This is actually wrong.
Vilfredo Pareto elaborated the idea in his doctrine of the âelite.â. The German sociologist Robert Michels devised the concept of the âIron Law of Oligarchyâ to refer to what he regarded as the inevitable tendency of political parties and trade unions to become bureaucratized, centralized, and conservative.