Reminds me of the classic Tyranny of Structurelessness [0] and how power accumulates out of necessity, convenience, informal networks, and so on.

[0] https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm

Why is this theory limited to just democracies? Isn’t it the case that an elite will appear in any group of people?

The author was part of an institution in Facist Italy that espoused the superhumanism of these “elites” over the little people as one of their core tenants: “The psychological difference that sets elites apart is that they have personal resources, for instance intelligence and skills, and a vested interest in the government; whilst the rest are incompetent and do not have the capabilities to govern themselves, the elite are resourceful and strive to make the government work.”

>since no sufficiently large and complex organization can function purely as a direct democracy

This right here is ripe for disruption. No longer is there any technical barrier to a direct democracy. If we can move billions of wealth in minutes, we can have billions of votes in the same amount of time.

oligarchy appears to be the natural state of affairs in most human systems and, despite that, tends not to be discussed much (instead we hear about democracy, fascism, communism, etc)

i think the best solution to this dynamic is many smaller units (states, companies, etc) so that oligarchies compete with one another, but this requires a type of system design and a vibe largely out of favor in todays world (e.g. secession & trust-busting for governments & corporations, respectively)