The Few and the Many: A Typology of Elites

ISBN-13: 9781859281949 / Angielski / Twarda / 1996 / 232 str.

Carlton, Eric

Opis

Social scientists are concerned with elites of many kinds - bureaucracies, military oligarchies, political leaders and the like. The study of elites is frequently characterised by a certain suspicion, and the tone of the enquirer's description and discussion of such groups is often sceptical if not actually hostile. While not simply an attempt to redress the balance, this book is intended to provide the reader with a fair idea of the nature and variety of elites and to offer some explanantions as to why societies over a remarkably wide range of time, space and economic development have evolved a structure in which a small group exercises a disproportionate power over the great mass of their fellows. The first section deals with theoretical approaches to elites and elitism, summarising and criticising work from Plato and Weber, Popper, Scruton and Bottomore. The second section consists of a number of historical and contemporary case studies, ranging from Classical Athens to late twentieth-century Western society, which individually and in combination illustrate and amplify the theoretical material. The final section draws together the main arguments in the form of a critique and conclusions.

Spis treści

Contents: Introduction: Theories of Elites; Elitism by Birth: The Hindu Caste System; Elitism by Class: Social Differentiation in Classical Greece; Elitism by Selection: Byzantine Bureaucracy; Elitism by Race: Europeans and Early Colonial America; Elitism by Moral Right: Europeans and Early Colonial Contacts; Elitism by Special Election: The Millenarian Phenomenon; Elitism by Conquest: The Tragedy of Cambodia; Elitism and Ecclesiastical Authority: The Church and Medieval Heresy; Elitism by Sex: The Gender Issue; Elitism by Party: National Socialism in Germany 1920-45; Elitism by Economic Status: The Western "Models" Problem; Elitism by Culture: The Mass Culture Debate; Elitism by Education: The Status of the Science Issue; Postscript; Bibliography; Index.

O autorze

Eric Carlton