Political Elites

Britain faces huge challenges: inequality, public services under constant pressure, climate change - and in the long term, the impacts of automation and artificial intelligence. At the same time, the political and economic elite seem to have reached an impasse: there is a sense that things can only get worse. In Why Capitalists Need Communists, Charles Seaford demonstrates that this need not be, that radical, progressive change is perfectly possible and that the polarisation and nostalgia afflicting us is not inevitable. History shows that it is precisely when the ruling elite loses confidence – which it has – that significant change happens and that new alliances are formed to take over. Tackling the challenges will take planning, redistribution, re-fashioned business and finance, and a new ideology – one which confirms that we really can create the conditions for more people to flourish. But this is not a pipe-dream. This book sets out just how this can come about, based on interviews with over 50 business people, politicians, analysts and activists. Everyone with an interest in the future should read it.

Table of contents :
Preface ....Pages i-xviii

Front Matter ....Pages 1-1
Introduction  ....Pages 3-24
Dystopia and Utopia  ....Pages 25-35

Front Matter ....Pages 37-37
Flourishing and its Role  ....Pages 39-70
Change in the Past (1)  ....Pages 71-90
Change in the Past (2)  ....Pages 91-108
A Stagnant Society?  ....Pages 109-124

Front Matter ....Pages 125-125
Planning  ....Pages 127-145
Redistribution  ....Pages 147-168
The System’s Limits  ....Pages 169-189
Structural Change  ....Pages 191-215

Epilogue: Where Now?  ....Pages 217-229
Back Matter ....Pages 231-244

RESUMO: Plínio, o Jovem, se comunicou regularmente com alguns personagens importantes de sua época, inclusive com o próprio imperador. Fora Trajano, o historiador Cornélio Tácito é seu destinatário mais frequente. Neste artigo, analisamos a correspondência pliniana à Tácito. O objetivo é elucidar e discutir pontos importantes da atuação das elites aristocráticas na política e sociedade romana no início do século II d.C. Para isso, tivemos em conta as estratégias de inserção e consolidação de uma nova aristocracia (provincial e municipal) no centro político do poder, Roma, tendo em vista os lugares sociais ocupados por nossos personagens e as relações estabelecidas entre eles e outros agentes sociais do período. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Plínio, o Jovem; Tácito; Aristocracias; Trajano; Império Romano. ABSTRACT: Pliny the Younger exchanged letters regularly with some of the most important people of this time, including the emperor himself. Besides Trajan, the historian Cornelius Tacitus was his most frequent addressee. In this paper, I analyze Pliny's correspondences to Tacitus. The objective is to discuss the disposition and actuation of aristocratic elites in Roman politics and society in the beginning of the 2nd century AD. To do this, I look into the inception and consolidation strategies of new aristocracies (provincials and municipals) in the political center of the empire, Rome, trying to situate the social places held by our authors and the relationships they established with other social agents of the period. Conversavam no circo um experiente senador e um jovem equestre que não se conheciam e se encontraram ali por acaso. Em meio a algumas conversas sobre filosofia, literatura e política, o jovem interpelou: "Você é da Itália ou é um provincial?" O senador, ciente da sua fama, respondeu: "Você me conhece e certamente pelos meus escritos." "És Tácito ou és Plínio?", questionou prontamente o equestre. A identidade do jovem não é conhecida por nós, mas o experiente senador em questão era Cornélio Tácito. Quem retratou esse diálogo, no entanto, foi Caio Plínio Cecílio Segundo, apelidado Plínio, o Jovem, em uma carta a Novio Maximo (Plin. Ep. 9.23). As palavras de Plínio que seguem a esse

The aim of this study is to explore the contemporary role of the folk high school as an educational pathway for Swedish MPs. Statistics from the folk high school register at Statistics Sweden are analysed. In summary, there are still quite a large number of former folk high school participants in the Swedish parliament (27%, 2014). The MPs' folk high school participation mainly took the form of short courses. Over time, the folk high schools have increasingly come to be used by members of parties on the left of the political spectrum. The folk high schools are commonly used as meeting places during the MPs' political career, and thus not only as an educational pathway to power, as emphasised in earlier research.

The monograph explores the formation and transformation of the law profession within the Moravian Margraviate in the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. He also asks where lawyers (advocates) found themselves on the imaginary social ladder in Moravia and what assumptions they had. At that time, lawyers have opened the way to a wide application in public life. At the municipal level, they applied in municipal self-government, but they also held important positions in a number of different associations. They took leadership positions in political parties and were also strongly represented in the Provincial Committee and the Moravian Provincial Parliament. They have also succeeded in national policy and have reached ministerial posts. Attention is also paid to education, professional activity, family or lawyers' property and how they were perceived by the public.

The article deals with influence of the Serbian elite in the scope of the Yugoslav Foreign Service during 1918-1939. The influence of the elite circles was particularly prominent in the Yugoslav Army and in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as was the case in Serbia until 1918. As non-institutional factors had great influence on the work of state institutions, the first aim of this paper is to examine the main aspect for selection, career development and obstacles in the life of Yugoslav Diplomats, derived from the power struggle among elite circles. The second aim is to compare Serbian and Yugoslav experiences in order to establish similarities and differences in the characteristics of the pre-War and Interwar Diplomatic-Consular personnel. The analysis is based on Yugoslav archival materials, as well as on foreign published documents, memorial literature and relevant Yugoslav/Serbian and foreign historiography.

The article discusses the special favours enjoyed by clergymen associated via their benefices with Wilno cathedral, which benefited from royal goodwill throughout the sixteenth century. The author then follows the path towards the cathedral stall via service at the royal court. A condition requisite for understanding those phenomena is awareness of the system of the accumulation of benefices and offices, which was an integral element of the discussed problem. Members of the clergy regarded as non-residents or special-occasion residents could offer their services to the body and represent it, for instance, at the royal court if they maintained – even if only by means of correspondence – contact with the chapter; at the same time they could represent the interests of the court in the chapter. In other words, they had a chance to become an integrative medium between Wilno and Cracow or Rome. The text also embarks upon an attempt at resolving the question: in what way did people in power endeavour to win the favour and devotion of influential persons? Another question worth posing, but one to which it is impossible to give an unambiguous answer, inquires whether members of the clergy were men of the Church or rather of the court. This query can be also considered within the context of the role played by the clergy in the integration process, e.g. between Cracow and Wilno, or by asking: was the clergy a liaison between political centres (i.e. the royal court) and the peripheries? Although today we find it difficult to solve whether clergymen were more secular or rather attached to the Church, we must admit that upon the occasion of financing delegations the chapter distinguished journeys made in the name of the Church from private ones that, as a rule, were not refunded.

Why has the United States not adopted global warming policies? Because the inner circle of the corporate elite has opposed these policies despite some corporate support for cap-and-trade and other policies. Pro- and anti-positions taken by think tanks that have led the policy debate in the post-Kyoto period are analyzed in order to demonstrate this. The corporate and upper class social ties of the directors of these pro- and anti-think tanks are examined, revealing a corporate elite split between the inner circle opposing these policies, and a ‘public interest sector’ of corporate law and media corporations along with top executives from higher education and other nonprofits that is supportive of policies addressing global warming. To enable adoption of major global warming policies, the corporate inner circle will need to become supportive and forge a class-wide corporate consensus on the need to address global warming.

El documento plantea la necesidad coyuntural e histórica de que en el Instituto Politécnico Nacional se conforme una red de académicos de las ciencias administrativas con una misión básica:  describir, explicar, evaluar y predecir los negocios ilegales con los que  -de 1982 a 2018- la cúpula de gobierno federal y organismos públicos mexicanos facilitaron y se hicieron cargo de negocios a partir del robo en especie y/o monetario de recursos de la Nación y cuya existencia y efectos nocivos se hacen presentes todavía, durante el sexenio 2018-2024.  El trabajo identifica quiénes son los que integran el segmento de “académicos de las ciencias administrativas”; asi y a los de la vanguardia politécnica del colegiado propuesto de científicos sociales, cuyas siglas son PICARRON.  Propórciona un paradigma de  tipo de negocios ilegales, de alcurnia, que son objeto de estudio; asi como otro, que esboza las categorías y variables cuyo comportamiento hay que investigar en cada caso que se aborde.  Hay un abordaje genérico a lineamientos metodológicos a emplear, asi como de la estructura minima del  programa emergente propuesto... ¡y ya en marcha!

Aunque es innegable la relevancia de los políticos para la
democracia, pocos autores han sugerido marcos de análisis
para examinarlos. De ahí la importancia del presente texto,
en el que se propone un marco evaluativo del político en
espacios representativos. Para lo dicho, se realiza un
estudio objetivo e integral, con indicadores numéricos, que
abarca 1263 biografías de legisladores de cuatro países:
Italia, España, México y Argentina. El índice de calidad del
político (ICPO) que se presenta contempla tres dimensiones:
la académico-profesional, la de la experiencia política y la
de la trayectoria o vocación política. Con los resultados
obtenidos, se hace una reflexión sobre los principales
hallazgos en cada una de las naciones estudiadas.
El libro que el lector tiene en sus manos, sin duda, servirá de
base para futuras investigaciones que busquen explicar las
variaciones de la calidad de los políticos. Con el ICPO será
posible realizar análisis comparados de estos actores en distintos ámbitos de la vida pública en cualquier país democrático.

Recensión del libro Gobernando el vacío del politólogo anglosajón Peter Mair. En el se tratan desde el ámbito de la ciencia política algunos de los problemas que engendran los sistemas políticos representativos en Europa, la desafección política, el absentismo y la volatilidad electoral, entre otros. Esta reseña se centra, sobretodo, en la segunda mitad del libro. Un documento excepcional para comprender el vaciado que se da entre las élites políticas y el electorado. Una historia trágica y muy recomendable de la deriva que están tomando nuestras democracias.