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Intro -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- 1. A Shining City: The Emphasis on Aesthetics -- 2. A Privileged World: Economic Power and Wealth -- 3. Significant People and Winners -- 4. Sporty Teenagers, Winsome Pensioners -- 5. Fragrant, Sociable Personages -- 6. Community and Social Partition -- 7. Family Life -- 8. A Lifestyle Under Threat -- Plates -- 9. Service Staff -- 10. Becoming an Elite -- 11. Judgment and Fear of Failure -- 12. Tactics for Success -- 13. The Rise of the "Consecracy" -- Acknowledgments -- Literature -- Appendix: The Ethnographic Study -- Notes -- Index

"Die notwendige Große Transformation muss auch Theorie und Praxis der Wissenschaft umfassen. Eine Hauptrolle Spielt in diesem Wandlungsprozess eine bislang eher wenig beachtete Spielart - die Bürgerwissenschaft oder Citizen Science. Aus einer Lückenbüßerin, die eher bescheiden auftritt, wird ein Maßstab für das, was sich in einer demokratischen Wissenschaftskultur ändern muss." (Autorenreferat)

The United States and most European countries have experienced an economic-political crisis unmatched in severity since the Great Depression. The crisis discredits the thesis of a nexus between free markets, unending economic growth and liberal democracy. It is obvious that elites -- principal decision-makers in powerful public and private organizations at national and supranational levels : have been pivotal actors in this crisis. It has without doubt been the hour of elites. What do elites' responses to the crisis reveal? How are elites altered by it? In whose interests have they acted? Although the authority of elites is always subject to dispute, has the crisis damaged it irreparably? What do decisive actions by non-elected elites and leaders in the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, European Commission and other institutions mean for democracy? In analyses covering five years of crisis, from 2008 to mid-2013, leading scholars in the field address these questions in order to understand the role of elites in the transatlantic crisis.

"This book considers the causes of high-level state corruption as well as the political constraints of countering corruption in Africa. It examines elite corruption in government as well as in the political and military spheres of state activity, and focuses on illegal behaviour on the part of state and non-state actors in decision-making. Situating corruption and anti-corruption within a political framework, this book analyses the motivations, opportunities and relative autonomy of state elites to manipulate state decision-making for personal and political ends. Based on detailed case studies in Uganda, the authors focus on corruption in the privatization process, military procurement, foreign business bribery, illegal political funding, and electoral malpractice. The book examines why anti-corruption institutions and international donors have been constrained in confronting this executive abuse of power, and discusses the wider relevance of Uganda's experience for understanding elite corruption and anti-corruption efforts in other African countries. The Politics of Elite Corruption in Africa will be of interest to students and scholars of African politics, African political economy, development studies, corruption and government."--Publisher's website

A distinguished group of scholars examine recent transitions to democracy and the prospects for democratic stability in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Portugal, Spain and Uruguay. They also assess the role of elites in the longer-established democratic regimes in Columbia, Costa Rica, Italy, Mexico and Venezuela. The authors conclude that in independent states with long records of political instability and authoritarian rule, democratic consolidation requires the achievement of elite 'consensual unity' - that is, agreement among all politically important elites on the worth of existing democratic institutions and respect for democratic rules-of-the-game, coupled with increased 'structural integration' among those elites. Two processes by which consensual unity can be established are explored - elite settlement, the negotiating of compromises on basic disagreements, and elite convergence, a more subtle series of tactical decisions by rival elites which have cumulative effect, over perhaps a generation