Search results

How can the existence of elites be compatible with democratic governance? Any democratic society is inevitably confronted by this basic question. This book reviews existing research on elites and their interactions with those around them. How the recruitment to elites changes in the long run according to class and gender is one of the core themes of the present volume. Other topics explored include the relationship between elites and the population, collective action and elite cohesion, and elites and democracy. The approach is multinational, with examples provided from countries around the world. This is a valuable book for social science students and researchers of many disciplines, including sociology, political science and psychology. It offers a review on historical and current research on elites in society and includes an extensive discussion of class and gender. Examples from countries in different parts of the world allow for international insights.

Elites are 'on trial' firstly for their role in the past and shaping the context for the crisis, secondly in terms of how they responded to the crisis and finally in terms of what role they are playing in the aftermath. This book is concerned with what happens when elites are challenged by crisis and helps us understand 'elites on trial'

This compelling and convincing study, the capstone of decades of research, argues that political regimes are created and sustained by elites. Liberal democracies are no exception; they depend, above all, on the formation and persistence of consensually united elites. John Higley and Michael Burton explore the circumstances and ways in which such elites have formed in the modern world. They identify pressures that may cause a basic change in the structure and functioning of elites in established liberal democracies, and they ask if the elites cluster around George W. Bush are a harbinger of thi

1. Introduction : the movement of the few / Thomas Birtchnell and Javier Caletrio -- 2. Elsewhere : tracking the mobile lives of globals / Anthony Elliott -- 3. Wealth segmentation and the mobilities of the super-rich : a conceptual framework / Jonathan V. Beaverstock and James R. Faulconbridge -- 4. Elite formation in the third industrial revolution / Thomas Birtchnell, Gil Viry and John Urry -- 5. Aeromobile elites : private business aviation and the global economy / Lucy Budd -- 6. Super-rich lifestyles / Mike Featherstone -- 7. The ease of mobility / Shamus Rahman Khan -- 8. The uneven pragmatics of "affordable" luxury tourism in inland Yucatan (Mexico) / Matilde Cordoba Azcarate, Ana Garcia Silberman and Juan Cordoba Ordonez -- 9. Visible-invisible : the social semiotics of labour in luxury tourism / Crispin Thurlow and Adam Jaworski -- 10. "This is not me" : conspicuous consumption and the travel aspirations of the European middle classes / Javier Caletrio -- 11. Tracing the super rich and their mobilities in a Scandinavian welfare state / Malene Freudendal-Pedersen -- 12. The super-rich and offshore worlds / John Urry -- 13. Epilogue : the bodies, spaces and tempo of elite formations / Mimi Sheller -- 14. Postscript : elite mobilities and critique / Andrew Sayer.

Recent Western literature concerning the political determinants of economic and social outcomes has primarily concentrated on regime types and the effectiveness of state institutions. While this literature has been influential among scholars of and in the Middle East and North Africa, there has also been an emphasis in the region on the interests and networks of economic and political elites—the interactions between rulers, elites, and the broader citizenry—to explain divergent policy outcomes. This is largely due to the inability of dominant mainstream institutional and structural theories to explain much of what has been observed in the region, viewing it as exceptional in its authoritarianism and resistance to global trends. In fact, the seeds for a more sophisticated understanding can be found in the literature on the Arab world that emphasizes relational dynamics between political and economic actors. Synthesizing the insights of scholars of the region has the potential to contribute more broadly to global debates on how political factors and conditions within states shape the quality of life experienced by their residents. Such a shift to viewing regimes as networks provides a useful framework for bridging the broader trends in political science with the work emanating from scholarship on the Middle East and North Africa.

Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Social Networks, Power, And The State -- Introduction -- Liberalism, Marxism, and State Theory -- States and Social Classes -- Chapter 2. Does It Matter Who Governs? -- Indicators of Power -- Uncertainty in Organizations -- The Cohesion of Class Segments -- States and Social Democrats -- The Need for State Unity -- Conclusion -- Chapter 3. Business Leaders, Experts, And The Social Security Act -- Introduction -- Corporate Liberalism and Mills -- The Distortion of Corporate-Liberal Theory -- The Social Security Act of 1935 -- Chapter 4. The Wagner Act And Class Conflict, 1897-1948 -- The Origins and Tribulations of Collective Bargaining -- Labor Policy in the Early New Deal -- Who Wrote the Wagner Act? -- Why Did It Pass? -- Implications and Conclusions -- Chapter 5. Defining The National Interest, 1940-1942: A Critique Of Krasner'S Theory Of American State Autonomy -- Introduction -- Krasner's Theory and Findings -- The Council on Foreign Relations and the National Interest -- Discussion -- Chapter 6. The Ruling Class Does Rule: The State Autonomy Theory Of Fred Block, And The Origins Of The International Monetary Fund -- Introduction -- Block's Theory -- The Who, Why, and How of the IMF -- Discussion and Conclusion -- Chapter 7. State Autonomy And The Employment Act Of 1946: An Empirical Attack On A Theoretical Fantasy -- Introduction -- Conflict over the Employment Bill -- Conclusion -- Chapter 8. Class Segments And Trade Policy, 1917-1962: A Challenge To Pluralists And Structural Marxists -- The Pluralists -- The Structural Marxist -- Trade Policy in the Interwar Years -- Postwar Trade Policies -- The Trade Expansion Act -- Conclusion -- Chapter 9. Which Fat Cats Support Democrats?