Political elites

Are they inevitable? If so, how do we tame them? If not, are they desirable? Establishments vs. oligarchies. Meritocracy. Decadence.,

Stanislav Andreski, Military Organization and Society
Almost any good book on archaeology. They have a marvellously hard-bitten way of looking at political power, almost as flinty-eyed as Tacitus's.
F. G. Bailey, Humbuggery and Manipulation: The Art of Leadership
Domhoff, Who Rules America? and the updated edition, Who Rules America Now?
Ibn Khaldún, The Muqaddimah
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
Tacitus, The Annals and The Histories

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Alastair Smith, Randolph M. Siverson and James D. Morrow, The Logic of Political Survival [Blurb]
Tom Bottomore, Elites and Society
Clifford W. Brown, Jr., Lynda W. Powell and Clyde Wilcox, Serious Money: Fundraising and Contributing in Presidential Nomination Campaigns [Blurb]
Elizabeth Drew, Whatever It Takes: The Real Struggle for Political Power in America
John Gledhill, Power and Its Disguises: Anthropological Perspectives on Politics
Kristin Kanthak, "Top-Down Divergence: The Effect of Party-Determined Power on Candidate Ideological Placement", journal of Theoretical Politics 14 (2002): 301--323
Richard Lachmann, Capitalists in Spite of Themselves: Elite conflict and Economic Transitions in Early Modern Europe [Or, how capitalism was born from the quarrels of tyrants]
Fred S. McChesney, Money for Nothing: Politicians, Rent Extraction, and Political Extortion
A. J. McGann, Bernard Grofman and W. Koetzle, "Why party leaders are more extreme than their members: Modeling sequential elimination elections in the U.S. House of Representatives", Public Choice 113 (2002): 337--356
Gaetano Mosca, The Ruling Class
Pareto
John Waterbury, The Commander of the Faithful: The Moroccan Political Elite
Richard L. Zweigenhaft and G. William Domhoff, Diversity in the Power Elite: Have Women and Minorities Reached the Top? [1998]

Notebooks