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In contemporary social analysis, the term political elites refers to the segments of national elites—the groups of powerful individuals influencing the political outcomes on the national level in a systematic and significant way—that control the government and other political institutions of the state. In liberal democracies they typically include political leaders, top parliamentarians and government officials, and leaders of the major political parties. Their power and influence reflect control over political power resources concentrated in the state as well as mutual access and the capacity for solitary action. Members of the political elite are typically identified as holders of the top power positions in government and the key organizations of the state, by involvement in making key political decisions, by reputation among their peers, or finally, by a combination of the three methods. Political leaders are typically placed at the apex of national elites (the latter including also elite groups heading business, mass media, military, trade union, and other organizations). At the other end of the power spectrum are the masses (or nonelites).

In democratic regimes, political elites operate electoral systems in which their members compete for leadership (top executive position in the state) by mobilizing popular electoral support. They also collaborate and compete peacefully with other elite groups (administrative, business, media, trade union, military, religious, etc.), including political opposition. In liberal democracies, such as the United Kingdom, the electoral competition for leadership is free and fair. In nonliberal regimes, such as Russia, the competition is highly skewed. Dominant elite groups monopolize political leadership, and they restrict competition by intimidating political rivals. Intraelite conflict and warfare are trademarks of nondemocratic and unstable polities.

The centrality of political (as well as other) elites as the key social actors was highlighted by Vilfredo Pareto, Gaetano Mosca, Robert Michels, and Max Weber at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Those classical elite theorists insisted that political power is necessarily and increasingly concentrated, and they criticized as ideological both Marxists, who foresaw a triumph of egalitarian socialism, and the advocates of participatory democracy. In contrast with both, the classical elite thinkers suggested persistent and inescapable power concentration in the hands of political elites who controlled large organizations, especially modern states. Revolutions, including socialist revolutions, claimed elite theorists merely reconstituted elites, and they did not narrow down the elite–mass power gaps. Democracy simply tamed and regulated elite power competition—the point subsequently elaborated by Joseph Schumpeter (in his definition of democracy as elite electoral competition for political leadership) and by contemporary elite theorists.

Political Elites And Ruling Classes

Political elites are sometimes conflated with ruling classes. The latter are typically circumscribed in terms of ownership of capital and land. Class theorists of Marxist persuasion treat political power as derived from property ownership, and they see political elites as executive arms of the ruling/ownership class(es). Some students of elites, such as William Domhoff, combine the class and elite perspective and depict elites as socially anchored in the dominant ownership class(es). The classical and contemporary elite theorists, by contrast, point to the autonomy of political (power) elites, as reflected in elites’ capacity to dominate or even expropriate the owners (e.g., in revolutions).

Contemporary elite theorists see the bases of elite power in command over the resources of the state (including the military might), organizational capacities, and intra-elite cohesion. C.W. Mills analyzed the emerging “power elite” in post–World War II America as firmly anchored in the national government, the military directorate, and the largest business corporations. Elite cohesion, according to him, did not preclude the possibility of temporary intra-elite divisions on specific policy questions. However, when faced with political challenges, the power elite acted in unison. Other contemporary students of political elites stress that the elites’ grip on power is strengthened by their influence over the mass media, their alliances with nonelite social forces—dominant classes, strata, movements, and politically organized groups—and their control over political succession.

Modern Elites

Robert Putnam provided a comprehensive over view of modern elites, including political, administrative, and business. He highlighted elite anchoring in social and institutional structures and saw elite conduct as heavily circumscribed by ideologies (revolutionary elites) and by national legal constitutional frameworks (liberal elites). John Scott studied modern corporate elites and edited a major sociological overview of modern elites that stresses the importance of power networks. Other contemporary elite theorists, such as John Higley and his collaborators, surveyed contemporary elites in stable democratic regimes. They linked political stability and democracy with elite consensus on the rules of political rivalry. By contrast, Eva Etzioni-Halevi identified effective “coupling” of political elites with lower/working classes as a key condition of democracy.

More recently, there has been a shift in elite research that can be summarized in four points:

The emergence of transnational power networks and elite alliances: while nation-states remain the most important institutional loci of power, other (and more diffuse) power concentrations emerge in the process of globalization. Faced with increasingly transnational/ global problems (e.g., terrorism, environmental degradation, climate change, declining oil supply, water shortages, drug trade, uncontrolled migrations) state political elites consult, collaborate, and form ad hoc and lasting, typically regional, alliances (e.g., Coalition of the Willing, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation).
Widening elite autonomy and prodemocratic orientations: the arguably most momentous events of the twentieth century, such as the dissolution of the USSR, the collapse of Soviet communism in Eastern Europe, and the subsequent democratization of regimes in Eastern Europe and East Asia, have been engineered predominantly from above by political elites, often with only halfhearted support of mass populations.
Increasing focus on strong political leaders combined with a heightening of this focus by electronic media: these trends reinforce each other and change the physiognomy of liberal democracies to leader democracies.
The declining impact of ideologies: Western political elites engineer and cultivate mass support in a pragmatic, opportunistic, and ad hoc manner, often through media spin and campaigns focusing on the personalities of the leaders. This reflects the fact that the support constituencies of Western elites are more fickle and less anchored in specific classes, ethno-segments, racial minorities, or religious groups.

Bibliography:

Domhoff, William. The Powers That Be: Processes of Ruling Class Domination in America. New York: Random House, 1979.
Etzioni-Halevi, Eva. The Elite Connection. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 1993.
Higley, John, and Michael Burton. Elite Foundations of Liberal Democracy. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006.
Higley, John, Jan Pakulski, and Wlodzimierz Wesolowski, eds. Postcommunist Elites and Democracy in Eastern Europe. Houndmills, UK: Macmillan, 1998.
Michels, Robert. Political Parties. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1958.
Mills, C.Wright. The Power Elite. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1956.
Mosca, Gaetano. The Ruling Class. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1939.
Pareto,Vilfredo. The Mind and Society. New York: Dover, 1935.
Putnam, Robert. Comparative Study of Political Elites. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1976.
Scott, John. The Sociology of Elites. Vols. 1–3. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 1990.