iated with collective power. As a group, they possess qualities that allow them to become the ruling class. They are composed of a small group of people, are organized, and possess similar interests, needs, and goals, all of which are facilitated by better communication between members due to its small size. Characterized by common wants and a basic uniformity, this promotes efficiency within the group that allows them to become more influential in society and to thus create and maintain a societal norm. Mosca describes the ruling class as “an organized minority…with a common understanding” (Mosca 53) and attributes that allow them to dominate and be influential. In separate historical instances, Mosca explains the basic conditions under which a group of people became a class ruling over another. In one example, the transition from an agricultural to warlike society enabled warriors, a position once avoided by men because of the risk of death, to become a dominant class. Changes in societal values and lifestyles (from farmers to crusading and defending warriors) best explain this “superposition of races” (Mosca 54); that is, the warriors possessed and represented what evolved to become valued at the time over agriculture, the maintenance of security. Similarly in some other societies, priests who “possess legal and scientific knowledge…constitute the class of highest intellectual culture” (Mosca 59). Thus, possession of what was greatly valued became a prerequisite, and in this case, the power of knowledge. On the other hand, individual power is associated with the ruled class, an “unorganized majority” (Mosca 53) where each person carried their own individual power. Due to their sheer size, not only would their opinions and interests greatly differ, but it would also make it harder for them to “organize for reaction against the minority” (Mosca 53). Th...
