AP PSYCHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Tendency of organizations to become increasingly dominated by small groups of people. What is the iron law of oligarchy? In bureaucracies, power tends to concentrate in the hands of a few people at the top. These people then use their position to promote their own interests over the interests of the organization.

Detailed explanation-2: -The “iron law of oligarchy” states that all forms of organization, regardless of how democratic they may be at the start, will eventually and inevitably develop oligarchic tendencies, thus making true democracy practically and theoretically impossible, especially in large groups and complex organizations.

Detailed explanation-3: -German-born, Italian sociologist Robert Michels coined the phrase “iron law of oligarchy, ” which holds that there is an inevitable tendency of organizations to become less democratic and more oligarchic over time.

Detailed explanation-4: -Another “law” of his is “Pournelle’s iron law of bureaucracy": In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals that the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.

Detailed explanation-5: -oligarchy, government by the few, especially despotic power exercised by a small and privileged group for corrupt or selfish purposes. Oligarchies in which members of the ruling group are wealthy or exercise their power through their wealth are known as plutocracies. Friedrich Engels.