The Elite Connection

Designed as a textbook for courses in political theory, political sociology and comparative politics, and as a contribution in its own right, this book explores the role of elite relations as a key to understanding democracy.

Jrgen Habermas, speaking of postmodern society, remarked that extension of the means of communication not only allows a wide range of information, but it also encourages permanent connections between different peoples, cultures, and social discourses. It thus facilitates better general understanding, a clarifying of real or apparent contradictions. But this process becomes truly positive only when it is performed between equal members. Globalization of information does not minimize the possibility of conflict or terrorism, if fundamental social problems are not resolved or at least approached in an active way. This volume examines the major upheavals of the twentieth century and views within the framework of these events and challenges implications for the future. "Values and Cultural Changes in the Postmodern World," by Zygmunt Bauman explores the changing meaning of space in the globalizing environment; S.N. Eisenstadt analyzes the destructive components of modernity; and Irving Louis Horowitz draws attention to the classical values of the common universal culture. "Social Development and Policies in Contemporary Society," by Michael M. Cernea, examines the importance of the applied and policy-orientated research, especially in the developing countries, and David Marsland stresses the positive role of sociology in pointing to the possibilities of improving healthcare in modern society. "Societies in Transition-Eastern Europe," emphasizes transitions that have occurred in Eastern Europe. Rozalina Rjyvkina and Leonid Kosals provide an incisive study of the situation in Russia, while Jerzy J. Wiatr presents a comparative analysis of postcommunist societies, with special reference to Poland. "The Jewish World: Pre- and Post-Holocaust," by Regina Azria, discusses the identity problems in the Diaspora confronting modernity; Eva Etzioni-Halevi considers the newly developed Israeli society from the point of view of the exercise and distribution of power; and a most interesting contribution by Annette Wieviorka concerns the material and spiritual effects of the Holocaust on the Jews of France. Social historians and students of Judaica, as well as a general public interested in cultural pluralism will find this well-developed volume essential reading.

Elite Networks presents a new explanatory factor behind the persistence of income inequality: extractive political power. Elite networks are informal social networks between politicians in power and top executives of politically connected firms where personal ties and long-term interactions build trust and loyalty between involved actors. Both groups draw benefits from these interactions; politicians stay in power, and corporate executives extract rents for their firms. Firms reward connected executives with higher salaries thus widening the dispersion of earnings in society. In Elite Networks, Vuk Vukovi? offers a different perspective on the long-run origins of inequality. Calling upon historical arguments and direct empirical evidence, Vukovi? argues that inequality is not an artifact of a particular economic system, but a man-made phenomenon rooted deeply within the, often violent, quest for political power. Further, he theoretically and empirically establishes the impact elite networks have on higher inequality. Offering a unique contribution to the field, this book argues that to lower inequality and prevent incentives of elite network formation, we must first and foremost lower centralized political power and re-empower the citizens and the community by rebuilding trust and relying on the democratic trial-and-error mechanism.

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 this change. The authors' powerful and important argument reframes our thinking about liberal democracy and questions optimistic assumptions about the prospects for its spread in the twenty-first century.

In A Connected Metropolis Maxwell Johnson describes Los Angeles's rise in the early twentieth century as catalyzed by a series of upper-class debates about the city's connections to the outside world. By focusing on specific moments in the city's development when tensions over Los Angeles's connections, or lack thereof, emerged, Johnson ties each movement to two or three contemporary figures who influenced the debates at hand. The elites' previous efforts to secure nationwide and global connections for Los Angeles were wildly successful following World War II. As a result, the city became a landing spot for African American migrants, Cambodian and Laotian refugees, and Mexican and Central American immigrants. Johnson argues that the city's history is more defined by external relationships than previously understood, and those relationships have given the history of the city more continuity than originally recognized. At the turn of the twentieth century, the politics of connection revolved around initiatives to tie Los Angeles to other places both tangibly and metaphorically. Elites built tangible connections to secure, among other things, the water that irrigated the citrus farms of Los Angeles, the capital that propelled its businesses, and the people who migrated from the Midwest to buy its houses. To build metaphorical connections that located the city amid transcontinental and trans-Pacific movements, elites themselves often transcended nearby borders and pursued connections at will. Los Angeles stood as a focal point for elite ambitions, a place with a more ambivalent relationship to external connections. The true story of Los Angeles's rise lies in the spectacular visions and rambunctious activism of a group of elite men dedicated to transforming a remote frontier town into a global metropolis.

This book explores the complex relationship between production, trade, and connectivity in pre-Roman Italy, confronting established ideas about the connections between people, objects, and ideas, and highlighting how social change and community formation are rooted in individual interactions. The volume engages with, and builds upon, recent paradigm shifts in the archaeology and history of the ancient Mediterranean which have centred the social and economic processes that produce communities. It utilises a series of case studies, encompassing the production, trade, and movement of objects and people, to explore new models for how production is organised and the recursive relationship which exists between the cultural and economic spheres of human society. The contributions address issues of agency and production at multiple scales of analysis, from larger theoretical discussions of trade and identity across different regions to context-specific explorations of production techniques and the distribution of material culture across the Italian peninsula. Production, Trade, and Connectivity in Pre-Roman Italy is intended for students and scholars interested in the archaeology and history of pre-Roman and early Republican Italy, but especially production, trade, community formation, and identity. Those interested in issues of cultural interaction and material change in the ancient Mediterranean world will find useful comparative examples and methodological approaches throughout.

Request a FREE 30-day online trial to this title at www.sagepub.com/freetrial This two-volume encyclopedia provides a thorough introduction to the wide-ranging, fast-developing field of social networking, a much-needed resource at a time when new social networks or "communities" seem to spring up on the internet every day. Social networks, or groupings of individuals tied by one or more specific types of interests or interdependencies ranging from likes and dislikes, or disease transmission to the "old boy" network or overlapping circles of friends, have been in existence for longer than services such as Facebook or YouTube; analysis of these networks emphasizes the relationships within the network . This reference resource offers comprehensive coverage of the theory and research within the social sciences that has sprung from the analysis of such groupings, with accompanying definitions, measures, and research. Featuring approximately 350 signed entries, along with approximately 40 media clips, organized alphabetically and offering cross-references and suggestions for further readings, this encyclopedia opens with a thematic Reader's Guide in the front that groups related entries by topics. A Chronology offers the reader historical perspective on the study of social networks. This two-volume reference work is a must-have resource for libraries serving researchers interested in the various fields related to social networks.

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