The article is devoted to the social and philosophical analysis of the historical changes of the elite power. There is made an attempt to identify the differences between elite power from the power of the elites. From this point of view, there are various approaches to study the ruling groups. And the hermeneutic approach is set off in the article. Based on it there is defined the elite of the text (the public), the elite of the subtext (behind the scenes), and the elite of the context (the real conditions of its existence).
