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This fearless study offers a broad and realistic understanding of what is and isn't possible in modern politics. Higley contends that stable liberal democracy is possible only when elites, although always self-interested, are unified and drive a coherent political agenda. Without this vital component, the prospects for lasting democracy grow dim.

This is a comprehensive study of how European political and economic leaders think and feel about Europe and about what course future European integration should take.

This book, prepared under the auspices of the IPSA Research Committee on Political Elites, focuses on the interpenetration between various types of elites: politicians, owners of capital, corporate managers, higher state administrators, directors of public enterprises, controllers of media, military officers and the civic-cultural establishment. The contributions to this book reveal contrasting patterns of recruitment and selection in terms of career paths, visibility, influence, and power of different elite circles. This diversity of national elite configurations challenges the C. Wright Mills' theory of an integrated "power elite", which appears from a comparative perspective to be peculiar to the United States during the early post-war period. Key concepts are discussed and empirically tested: ruling class, political class, elite circulation versus elite reproduction, elite interpenetration, elite interlocks, elite cohesion, elite osmosis, functional elite roles, formal and informal networks, elite cousinhood, separation versus overlapping between wealth and power, and between power and social capital. The book covers a great variety of countries: post-industrial democracies (France, Britain, Germany, Canada), new democracies (East-Central Europe, Mexico) and modernizing regimes (Southeast Asia, Tropical Africa), presented by an international selection of distinguished contributors: Andras Bozoki, Roderic Camp, William Case, Jean-Pascal Daloz, Mattei Dogan, Dennis Kavanagh, Michael Ornstein, David Richards, Erwin Scheuch and John Scott

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'.

International audience ; This article considers the conflicts linking the social question to the social sciences in Germany around 1900 through the analysis of the student associations for social sciences (Sozialwissenschaftliche Studentenvereine). Students did not seek an introduction to social sciences as academic scientific disciplines in particular, which remained loosely autonomous and suffered from heterogeneous definitions and uses. Much more, students looked for a scientific legitimacy for the resolution of the social question, a task that had to be tackled by the elite they felt destined to join. For a large part of university and political authorities, this interest for the social question could only mean socialism. Therefore, they repressed these associations, especially in Prussia, despite their certain attractivity. The history of these associations allows to understand the attempts to redefine the social role of elites as well as the institutionalisation of the social sciences, which turn out to be closely linked. ; Cet article revient sur les conflits qui lient question sociale et sciences sociales en Allemagne autour de 1900, en mettant au cœur de l'analyse les associations étudiantes de sciences sociales (Sozialwissenschaftliche Studentenvereine). Ce ne sont pas tant les sciences sociales en tant que disciplines universitaires, faiblement autonomisées et aux définitions et usages encore hétérogènes, qui sont recherchées par les étudiants, qu'un cadre et une légitimité scientifiques au règlement de la question sociale, tâche à laquelle doit s'atteler l'élite qu'ils s'estiment destinés à rejoindre. Pour une large partie des autorités universitaires et politiques, cet investissement de la question sociale ne peut qu'être synonyme de socialisme et elles se sont attachées, surtout en Prusse, à réprimer ces associations, malgré leur certaine attractivité. Ces associations rendent en cela visibles les tentatives de redéfinition du rôle social des élites et l'institutionnalisation universitaire des sciences sociales, qui s'avèrent être étroitement liées.

chapter Introduction: Theories of Elites -- chapter 1 Elitism by Birth: The Hindu Caste System -- chapter 2 Elitism by Class: Social Differentiation in Classical Greece -- chapter 3 Elitism by Selection: Byzantine Bureaucracy -- chapter 4 Elitism by Race: Europeans and the Indians of Colonial America -- chapter 5 Elitism by Moral Right: Europeans and Early Colonial Contacts -- chapter 6 Elitism by Special Election: The Millenarian Phenomenon -- chapter 7 Elitism by Conquest: The Tragedy of Cambodia -- chapter 8 Elitism and Ecclesiastical Authority: The Church and Medieval Heresy -- chapter 9 Elitism by Sex: The Gender Issue -- chapter 10 Elitism by Party: National Socialism in Germany 1920-45 -- chapter 11 Elitism by Economic Status: The Western 'Models' Problem -- chapter 12 Elitism by Culture: The Mass Culture Debate -- chapter 13 Elitism by Education: The Status of Science Issue.

International audience ; This article considers the conflicts linking the social question to the social sciences in Germany around 1900 through the analysis of the student associations for social sciences (Sozialwissenschaftliche Studentenvereine). Students did not seek an introduction to social sciences as academic scientific disciplines in particular, which remained loosely autonomous and suffered from heterogeneous definitions and uses. Much more, students looked for a scientific legitimacy for the resolution of the social question, a task that had to be tackled by the elite they felt destined to join. For a large part of university and political authorities, this interest for the social question could only mean socialism. Therefore, they repressed these associations, especially in Prussia, despite their certain attractivity. The history of these associations allows to understand the attempts to redefine the social role of elites as well as the institutionalisation of the social sciences, which turn out to be closely linked. ; Cet article revient sur les conflits qui lient question sociale et sciences sociales en Allemagne autour de 1900, en mettant au cœur de l'analyse les associations étudiantes de sciences sociales (Sozialwissenschaftliche Studentenvereine). Ce ne sont pas tant les sciences sociales en tant que disciplines universitaires, faiblement autonomisées et aux définitions et usages encore hétérogènes, qui sont recherchées par les étudiants, qu'un cadre et une légitimité scientifiques au règlement de la question sociale, tâche à laquelle doit s'atteler l'élite qu'ils s'estiment destinés à rejoindre. Pour une large partie des autorités universitaires et politiques, cet investissement de la question sociale ne peut qu'être synonyme de socialisme et elles se sont attachées, surtout en Prusse, à réprimer ces associations, malgré leur certaine attractivité. Ces associations rendent en cela visibles les tentatives de redéfinition du rôle social des élites et l'institutionnalisation universitaire des ...

A fascinating and controversial study of the organization of our society, this well-known volume depicts the style and substance of the men and women at the pinnacles of fame, power, and fortune in mid-1900s America. Alan Wolfe's astute afterword to this new edition shows how Mills was a pioneer in helping readers think about the society they have and the society they might want.

In this book, author David N. Levy uses Machiavelli's conflict between the elite and the people as the lens through which to understand the other major features of his republicanism. Through analyzing his Discourses on Livy, Levy shows that Machiavelli's principles can provide support for, and constructive criticism of, modern liberal democracy.

In 2008, the world entered a new period of turmoil. Financial markets collapsed, banks and other financial institutions went in to crisis; credit dried up, consumption reduced and firms started to cut back and reduce investment in the light of uncertainty. Unemployment increased and welfare payments increased. States that borrowed to save their banks and to maintain their spending found the financial markets and the international institutions condemning their profligacy and urging austerity policies. This book is concerned with what happens when elites are challenged by such a crisis; in our terms, 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. Can they reestablish their legitimacy or will they fail this trial and find themselves replaced by other groups with different objectives? This collection draws together a variety of studies and approaches to these issues from a group of international authors which helps us understand elites on trial in the contemporary period.