Gaetano Mosca (1858 - 1941) was an Italian political scientist, journalist and public servant. He is credited with developing the Theory of Elitism and the doctrine of the Political Class and is one of the three members constituting the Italian School of Elitists together with Vilfredo Paredo and Robert Michels. Their works inspired subsequent studies by political scientists of the process of the "circulation of elites" within democracies and other political systems. He is the author of the book The Ruling Class.
