Even organisations founded to spread democracy end up run by a few

Sociologist Robert Michels studied Germany's Social Democratic Party, a movement committed to equality, and found it was steered by a small, entrenched leadership. Large organisations need full-time officials with expertise and control of information, he argued, and those officials become an elite. His 1911 conclusion, 'who says organisation, says oligarchy', still frames debates about parties, unions and charities.

— Robert Michels, Political Parties — 1911
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