The Role of Elites in Economic Development edited by Alice H Amsden, Alisa DiCaprio and James A Robinson (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press), 2012; pp xxii + 374, £58. T he Role of Elites in Economic Development is a volume of 15 essays edited by Alice H Amsden, Alisa DiCaprio and James A Robinson. This book grew out of a United Nations University conference held in Helsinki in the summer of ...

We construct a simple model where political elites may block technological and institutional development, because of a “political replacement effect.” Innovations often erode elites’ incumbency advantage, increasing the likelihood that they will be replaced. Fearing replacement, political elites are unwilling to initiate change and may even block economic development. We show that the relations...

This article argues that the effect of economic crises on democratic transition is contingent on economic structure. Specifically, a high level of state engagement in the economy makes social forces dependent on the ruling elites for patrimonial interests and, therefore, the authoritarian regime liable for economic failure. Moreover, when authoritarian elites own a high share of economic assets...

La sociología de Pareto es inseparable de su perspectiva económica, en especial su célebre teoría de las élites. Su teoría de los mercados monopólicos requiere factores extra-económicos, por lo tanto, construyó una teoría sociológica de las élites. Aquí se demuestra que su teoría sociológica general de las élites es vacua, ya que la clase de las elites es co-extensiva respecto de la población t...

The choice to give up sovereignty to another state helps explain the development of international hierarchy, while resistance often results in conflict as states instead use coercion to assert their control. This paper develops an explanation of why actors support giving up sovereignty to another state. The argument uses domestic politics to explain hierarchy, expanding beyond the existing lite...

The aim of this paper is to examine the evolution of recruitment of elites and to investigate the nature of the links between recruitment of elites and economic growth. The main change that occurred in the way the Western world trained its elites is that meritocracy became the basis for their recruitment. Although meritocratic selection should result in the best being chosen, we show that merit...

This paper examines the role of knowledge elites in modernization. At the eve of the French Revolution, in the spring of 1789, King Louis XVI solicited lists of grievances (Cahiers de Doléances), in which the public could express complaints and suggestions for reforms of the Ancien Regime. We show that the demand for mass education and democratization was particularly high in regions that had a...