Italian political theorist. Educated at the Univ. of Palermo, he taught constitutional law there (1885-88) and at the Univs. of Rome (1888-96) and Turin (1896-1908). A member of the Italian chamber of deputies from 1908, he was made senator for life by Victor Emmanuel III in 1919. In works such as Elementi di scienza politica (1896; The Ruling Class) he argued that society has historically and properly been governed by minorities, whether military, religious, oligarchical, or aristocratic.
