In all societies-from societies that are very meagrely developed and have barely attained the dawnings of civilisation, down to the most advanced and powerful societies-two classes of people appear-a class that rules and a class that is ruled. The first class, always the less numerous, performs all political function, monopolises power and enjoys the advantages that power brings, whereas the second , the more numerous class, is directed and controlled by the first, in a manner that is now more or less legal, now more or less arbitrary and violent. (Mosca,1939, p. 50; original in italain, 1896)