Robert Michels e la tradizione socio-politologica italiana

Inspired by the notes made by Earle Edward Eubank during his research trip to investigate the European sociology (1934-1935), this essay re-examines the role played by Robert Michels in the social sciences during his own time and, more generally, it retraces a fundamental part of the Italian socio-political tradition between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By looking at some of Michels’ most significant works – and, in particular, his Elemente zur Soziologie in Italien (1924) – this essay, therefore, focuses on the pioneering season of Italian sociology, underlining the peculiarities that marked its evolution and analysing its relationships with other disciplines, from economics to anthropology. Finally, it highlights its most original elements and the main reasons for its backwardness when placed within the contemporary international panorama.