This work has been declared by the AHA board as historic, and is superseded by Humanist Manifesto III. The Manifesto is a product of many minds. It was designed to represent a developing point of view, not a new creed.
Re: the iron law of oligarchy Aug22-09, 10:47 PM JRDunassigned: The iron law of oligarchy is a political theory, first developed by the German syndicalist sociologist Robert Michels in his 1911 book, Political Parties. This is actually wrong.
The US Founding Fathers passed inheritance taxes in order to avoid inherited oligarchy but these have recently been weakened. Laws are made by an elite or by representatives controlled by an elite. The danger to a democracy is that the elite can spend large sums to get themselves or their friends elected to office. Once in office they pass taxes and other laws that favor the elite, thus putting the elite into even better positions to extend their control over time.