Th e present article examines some contemporary elitist concepts launched by two leading reformers of elitist approach regarding the classical democratic theory – J.A. Schumpeter and K. Mannheim, as well as several relevant contemporary elitist schools and (political) tendencies (Machiavellian school, theories of value and the radical theory of elites). Th e article also highlights the most widespread neo-elitist theories in the second half of the twentieth century – the concepts of democratic elitism and theories of elites’ pluralism. It concludes that the contemporary (political) elitist ideologies have deep roots in the history of political ideas since ancient thought and ending with neo-Machiavellianism (V. Pareto, G. Mosca, and R. Michels).