Philosophies of elitism and anti-elitism

This chapter outlines the recent history of thinking on elitism in terms of politics and education. The chapter is divided into three sections: pro-elitist political philosophies, which discuss the Italian pragmatist school (Pareto, Mosca, Michels) and cultural elitism (T.S. Eliot and E.D. Hirsch, among others); anti-elitist political philosophies (mainly the American schools from the Second World War to the present day, covering the ideas of Wright Mills, Hunter, Burnham, Ferguson, Putnam and Dye); anti-cultural elitism (the schools of critical theory and postcolonialism) and, finally, foundational discourses on education and elitism (Bourdieu, Freire and Hirsch). The chapter compares political and educational elitism and anti-elitism to establish a number of core findings, essentially opposing three types of elitism (meritocratic, plutocratic and cultural) with three types of anti-elitism (egalitarianism, Marxism and anti-cultural elitism).