This article is devoted to the problem of elite theories philosophical foundations and based on them elitological epistemes formed in this specific branch of political science. The relevance of the material lies in the author’s systematization of elitist concepts, which allows to combine various approaches to elites into a single matrix due to facilitate further researches in this area. Article main purpose is to consider the philosophical foundations of existing theories of elites, as well as arising on their basis epistems, and then to correlate them with each other according to two parameters – assumed by the author of the approach elite function, and ruling minority mechanism of formation and self-reproduction. Both classical and more modern theories of elites have been examined, from the first general philosophical works inscribing the phenomenon of the elite in the logic of world and society development, to theoretical studies of the late 20th century justifying elite existence even in conditions of its maximum democratization of society as its integral part, which allows us to trace the researchers’ views evolution. Study conclusions is designated as a matrix operability check as a result of application to examples of classical and modern elitological studies. The verification shows that the conduct of any elitological research is based on the two parameters indicated by the author (the function of the elite and the justification of elitogenesis), which proves classification operability

This article is devoted to the problem of elite theories philosophical foundations and based on them elitological epistemes formed in this specific branch of political science. The relevance of the material lies in the author’s systematization of elitist concepts, which allows to combine various approaches to elites into a single matrix due to facilitate further researches in this area. Article main purpose is to consider the philosophical foundations of existing theories of elites, as well as arising on their basis epistems, and then to correlate them with each other according to two parameters – assumed by the author of the approach elite function, and ruling minority mechanism of formation and self-reproduction. Both classical and more modern theories of elites have been examined, from the first general philosophical works inscribing the phenomenon of the elite in the logic of world and society development, to theoretical studies of the late 20th century justifying elite existence even in conditions of its maximum democratization of society as its integral part, which allows us to trace the researchers’ views evolution. Study conclusions is designated as a matrix operability check as a result of application to examples of classical and modern elitological studies. The verification shows that the conduct of any elitological research is based on the two parameters indicated by the author (the function of the elite and the justification of elitogenesis), which proves classification operability