This article revisits the theory of party organization by questioning the impossibility of democracy within parties, as enunciated by Robert Michels' notion of "the iron law of oligarchy". The debate is placed within the context of the ideological disputes of liberal thought during the Cold War. I seek to make differences between conceptions of party clear and take up the socialist dilemma of mass participation in modern representation. I attempt to demonstrate the importance of political parties as a form of public emancipation in contemporary society.
Representation; Political Parties; Democracy; Socialism; Robert Michels