Robert Michels jako prekursor socjologii organizacji
Robert Michels as a Precursor of Organizational Sociology

Summary/Abstract: In Polish academic discourse Robert Michels is quite stereotypically regarded only as one of continuators of Vilfredo Pareto and Gaetano Mosca, unambiguously associated as “the one from the Iron Law of Oligarchy”. Little-known is a fact, that in the United States Michels is not only considered a pioneer of political sociology, but he is also appreciated for his contribution to sociology of organizations. Furthermore, American scholars regard Michels as the discoverer of the goals-displacement phenomenon. His masterpiece – Political Parties – has become a starting point for many empirical studies on this phenomenon. Scholars of pathologies in the functioning of social organizations have identified the presence of the goals-displacement phenomenon not only in political parties and trade unions, but also in social movements, business corporations, non-governmental organizations and religious groups. The aim of this article is to reconstruct Michels’s contribution to sociology of organization and to draw attention to the universality of the goals-displacement phenomenon in social movements. In conclusion of this article the author asks whether the goals displacement phenomenon affects the European Union as well.

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