Academics often talk complete rubbish, but sometimes they say something that helps make sense of the world. The first in the ak13 series on key concepts is Michels' Iron Law of Oligarchy, a law that helps explain why a small group of individuals, who may or may not be lizards, run the world.

Name of concept: Michels' Iron Law of Oligarchy.

Academic discipline: Sociology, Politics.

Who came up with it: Robert Michels, 1876-1936.

What it is about: Michels believed that all large organisations end up being run by a ruling elite of leaders more concerned with the interests of the organisation, than the organisation's original purpose.

He came up with this Iron Law after working for a German political party, the SPD, in his youth. There he realised that, in its effort to be effective, any organisation's members would seek leaders and organisers; these leaders would then develop specialist skills, pushing them further away from rank and file members. Party members would leave policy-making to officials, leading to these already-powerful leaders developing a heightened sense of self-importance.

If it is large enough, the organisation would have an income and specific tasks, so employ full-time officials. The officials prefer to avoid risk, such as clashing with powerful interests, because this jeopardises their job security. Their main interest lies in furthering their careers.

Michels said his Iron Law was effective for all organisations, not just political parties, because if an organisation dedicated to establishing democracy cannot help becoming an oligarchy, then it was inevitable it must also happen to others. He believed it was impossible for a organisation with a large membership to be run democratically.

What it is good for: Not surprisingly, Michels' concept is very useful for understanding how political parties work. Tony Blair's Labour Party appears to very similar to the model that Michels described. Blair's reforms of the Labour Party in the mid-1990s created an oligarchy at the top of the party in an successful attempt to make it more effective. Only a decade later has the party's membership begun to recognise the enormous gap between themselves and the leadership. Maybe they should have read Michels before approving Blair's plans.

The Iron Law also applies to private sector companies. Virtually all firms are run by a small number of people at the top – an oligarchy – and these people are often more interested in pursuing low risk strategies than taking chances.

There are few organisations that contradict Michels' theory. Anyone who has ever done any work for a parent-teacher association, or a sports club, should recognise it; there is always a few people who, maybe reluctantly, end up running the show and making all the decisions.

It is a bit dodgy because: In the final analysis, the Iron Law says democracy can't really work, and mass political participation cannot happen because people have a tendency to leave it to others to sort things out.

Michels ended up in Italy as one of Mussolini's professors of Fascist political science, writing: "the rule of the elite will be frank, clear, concrete, direct" with none of the "tortuous intrigues" of democracy. However, much as he liked Mussolini's ability to get the trains to run on time, Michels also believed that dictators would never voluntarily stand down, even when they had no more ideas, so seeming to suggest some sort of democracy might be preferable.

You will need to understand this if . . . You help run a small club and feel overworked. If you ever wondered why a small group of people lord over political parties. If you ever plan to be a dictator.

Why not also take a look at . . . Other 'elite theorists', including Michels' Italian contemporaries Gaetano Mosca and Vilfredo Pareto – well known for his work in economics – as well as the American C. Wright Mills, the academic that wrote
The Power Elite and other works in the 1940s and 1950s.