sentences:  Elite theory argues either that democracy is a utopian folly, as it is traditionally viewed in the conservative Italian tradition, or that democracy in its idealized form is not realizable within capitalism (a common view of Marxist-inspired elite theorists).Even when entire groups are ostensibly completely excluded from the state's traditional networks of power (historically, on the basis of arbitrary criteria such as nobility, race, gender, or religion), elite theory recognizes that "counter-elites" frequently develop within such excluded groups.Negotiations between such disenfranchised groups and the state can be analyzed as negotiations between elites and counter-elites.