The New Power Elite - Inequality, Politics and Greed

Inequality, Politics and Greed

Alan Shipman, JuneEdmunds, Bryan Turner, June Edmunds

• Publisher: Anthem Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781783087877
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781783087891
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Political Economy
• Index: Social Sciences

Elites have always ruled – wielding inordinate power and wealth, taking decisions that shape life for the rest. In good times the '1%' can hide their privilege, or use growing social mobility and economic prosperity as a justification. When times get tougher there's a backlash. So the first years of the twenty-first century – a time of financial crashes, oligarchy and corruption in the West; persistent poverty in the south; and rising inequality everywhere – have brought elites and 'establishments' under unprecedented fire. Yet those swept to power by this discontent are themselves a part of the elite, attacking from within and extending rather than ending its agenda. The New Power Elite shows how major political and social change is typically driven by renegade elite fractions, who co-opt or sideline elites' traditional enemies. It is the first book to combine the politics, economics, sociology and history of elite rule to present a compact, comprehensive account of who's at the top, and why we let them get there.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Information
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Chapter One  Elites under Siege
• Chapter Two  Power, Networks and Higher Circles
• Chapter Three  Sources of Stability: Elite Circulations and Class Coalitions
• Chapter Four  Rousing Rebellion: Elite Fractions and Class Divisions
• Chapter Five  Politics and Money
• Chapter Six  Inequality: Causes and Consequences
• Chapter Seven  Elites and Democracy
• Chapter Eight  Giveaways and Greed
• Afterword: The Best and the Rest
• References
• Index