ABSTRACT
The first effect of a liberal social order on the formation of elites is to increase the influx into these groups and so to increase the number of these groups. At first this increase led to a fruitful variety compared with the rigidity and exclusiveness of the rather limited number of these groups which had formerly controlled the smaller and more manageable societies. But beyond a certain point this variety gives way to diffuseness. Indeed, the more elites there are in a society the more each individual elite tends to lose its function and influence as a leader, for they cancel each other out. In a democratic mass society, especially one with great social mobility, no group can succeed in deeply influencing the whole of society.
