All complex organizations tend toward rule by a small elite over time.
Michels's 1911 study of the German Social Democratic Party — the organisation most committed to internal democracy, which nonetheless produced a permanent leadership. He drew the general law from the hardest case.
In practice
- A cooperative founded on rotating leadership finds the same four people running it after five years, none of whom sought it.
- A campaign group with open meetings develops a core who know the procedure, and the procedure is now the power.