The book addresses the factors that influence the power structure and decision making processes in organizations, with a specific focus on the political systems of democracy and oligarchy.

Lipset noticed that ITU formed an interesting contradiction to the iron law in the 1940s, while studying under one of the 'giants' of sociology, Robert K. Merton, who encouraged him to develop those ideas into an article, and later, a book, a task that Lipset approached with the help of two other researchers, Martin Trow and James S. Coleman.

They noted that unlike most of such organizations, ITU was founded by a group of local unions valuing their autonomy.

They also point out that similarity between background of members (most of them coming from middle class) further encouraged democratic decision making processes.

[3] One of the conclusions of Lipset, Trow and Coleman research was that behaviour of individuals could be related to the qualities of local environments (groups) and their leaders.