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What are the positive effects of elite politics on social development?

This involves political science, elite politics is a political concept (as opposed to mob politics), you can refer to the following article, it is not difficult to summarize:

Impact:

Elite politics is concerned with the power structure of society and its characteristics. Early elite politics was more of a social theory, which categorized people in society into elite and mass, and provided an "elite-mass" dichotomy.

From the point of view of the popular politicians, it is often believed that the elite politicians are contemptuous of the public. It is even believed that elite politics is a kind of contempt, ridicule, or even hatred of the ordinary masses, that the masses are an ignorant, blind and pretentious group of claims, and that "slaves", "barbarians", " slaves", "barbarians", "rabble", "herd animals" and other terms are products of elite politics (this is probably a misunderstanding and prejudice of elite politics). As a matter of fact, the ideal elite politics has a high moral self-possession, and the pursuit of knowledge is endless. The comprehensive growth of truth, goodness and beauty should be the mission of being an elite. However, elite politics has often become an excuse for those with vested interests to exploit and enslave the middle and lower classes, so that the idea of elite politics has later become synonymous with "exploiters" and "hostile to the masses," but such perceptions are class-biased. The first is that it is not a good idea.

In human history, a high level of civilization is usually initiated by the upper class elites. This is because the upper elite usually do not need to worry about survival, but have the energy to develop cultural activities to a high level of cultural activities ---- civilization. But of course, such an outcome is the result of cooperation between the elite and the masses. Without the production services provided by the mass class, the elite would not have any spare capacity to develop civilization. From this it is clear that the existence of both the elite class and the mass class is indispensable in the development of human civilization. But such a clear dichotomy is meaningless. After all, there is no clear indicator of whether a person is an elite (or a popular class), because the pursuit of truth is endless. Since the pursuit of truth is endless, there is no absolute elite. But the popular class can be clearly defined. If a person does not have "the realization of eternity (the realization of spirituality and conscience)," does not have "the self-awareness of growth," and does not unite knowledge and action in the pursuit of knowledge and truth, then such a person is very likely to become an "ignorant person. However, those who do not realize the above are likely to become "ignorant". However, those who do not have the above realization are the majority in the history of mankind (as opposed to the elites and intellectuals). Therefore, this majority can be called "the masses". The term mass began to be emphasized at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, and this word was emphasized because of the consciousness of the majority as opposed to the bourgeoisie (often a group of people who "do not" seek truth, goodness, and beauty, but rather a few who monopolize resources in the pursuit of profit). They are conscious of being different from the "dominant culture" (which they see as constructed by the will of the elite), the "exploiters", the "rich", and they are proposing a self-culture of their own. emphasize.

Elite politicians are almost universally pessimistic politically about democracy. In their eyes, democracy is a trick and will never work. By deliberately catering to the interests of the majority, democracy often develops into so-called "mob politics", and only the political elite is the bulwark of democracy, protecting it from mob politics.

The rise of elite politics has exposed some of the flaws of Western democracy from another angle, and the tendency of elite politics to regard democracy as a program has to some extent promoted the combination of democracy and liberal politics, laying the foundation for the formation of contemporary Western constitutional democracy. In the modern political science theory system, the influence of the theory of elite politics has gone beyond its theory itself, and has an important position in the field of political science.

Substance:

The rise of elite politics reflects the conservative attitude of Western thought toward the rise of mass democracy, and people try to counter the trend of mass democracy with elite politics. Criticized and challenged by the trend of thought from pluralistic politics and social politics, elite politics is declining in contemporary times. The new elite politics that has emerged in recent times pays more attention to interest groups and tries to make a breakthrough in the issues of elite decision-making and the legitimacy of elite rule.

People often use the concepts of "power elites", "social elites", "oligarchs" and "ruling class" to refer to elites. Pareto's concepts of "power elite" and "social elite", "oligarchy" and "ruling class" are often used to refer to the elite. Pareto in the distinction between "elite rule" and "the people" two concepts based on the "high" and "quality Pareto, on the basis of the distinction between the concepts of "elite rule" and "people", defines the elite in terms of "height" and "quality"; Weber, Schumpeter and others tend to regard the elite as the winners of democratic politics; Lasswell tries to use the concept of "height" as a quantitative analysis of the elite standard. But to this day, even within elite politicians, the meaning of elite is not consistent.

Early elite politics had an aristocratic tendency to take status, position, and property as the criteria for measuring elites. In the process of continuous development, elite politics gradually accepted and integrated some elements of democracy, and developed into elite democracy. Elite political democracy denies the values of "popular sovereignty", "public will", "*** same welfare" in classical democratic theory, and prefers to regard democracy as a method or a procedure, and adopts an instrumental political approach to democracy. It prefers to regard democracy as a method or a program, and adopts an attitude of instrumental politics towards democracy. This concept of procedural democracy has a direct impact on the democratic theories of Dahl, Huntington and others.