Rethinking the Concept of a ‘Financial Elite’: A Critical Intervention

While the concept of a ‘financial elite’ has become prominent within politics and social sciences, it is not clear what value holds for analysis inequalities income, wealth power under financial capitalism. Who are elite, distinguishes them from other economically powerful groups? We delineate ‘distributive’, ‘categorical’ ‘relational’ approaches to elites, arguing that various unresolved tensions have hampered clarification differentia specifica concept, blunted its normative significance. develop new elites combines insights elite studies financialisation studies. argue possess only high incomes, but income primarily derived ‘rentier’ channels, as endowed by institutional structures financialisation. Financial demonstrate capacity capitalise on these accumulation shape regulatory landscapes in which they operate.