... a picture and while there does seem to be a strong tendency for oligarchy to form, it can not be said to be an 'iron rule', as there are a number of examples where political parties have not taken on such a form. Much of Michels 'iron rule' theory was influenced heavily by Karl Marx' philosophy on class rivalries, believing that in any capitalist society there would always be a ruling class of bureaucrats who controlled the state's resources, as he wrote 'the 'dominant' or 'political' class ..... consists the only factor of sufficiently durable efficacy in the history of human development.' 1 (Michels) This was an accepted fact up to the turn of the twentieth century; when ideals of aristocratic dominance were exchanged for ones of open democracy and the end of political inequalities. But Michels believed that this new social phenomenon had done little to change the basic structure ...

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