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Robert Michels

(1876-1936)

Born to a wealthy German family, Robert Michels is a sociologist best known for his book Political Parties, which contains a description of the iron law of oligarchy, which states that political parties and other membership organizations inevitably tend toward oligarchy, authoritarianism, and bureaucracy.

He moved to Italy, where he became a revolutionary syndicalist.

He died in Rome in 1936.

Major works of Robert Michels

- Political Parties. London: Jarrod, 1915.
- Storia critica del socialismo italiano dagli inizi fino 1911. Florence: La Voce, l926

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