The Role of Elites in Economic Development By Alice H. Amsden; Alice DiCaprio; James A. Robinson
2012 | 374 Pages | ISBN: 0199659036 | PDF | 2 MB
Elites have a disproportionate impact on development outcomes. While a country's endowments constitute the deep determinates of growth, the trajectory they follow is shaped by the actions of elites. But what factors affect whether elites use their influence for individual gain or national welfare? To what extent do they see poverty as a problem? And are their actions today constrained by institutions and norms established in the past? This volume looks at case studies from South Africa to China to seek a better understanding of the dynamics behind how elites decide to engage with economic development. Approaches include economic modelling, social surveys, theoretical analysis, and program evaluation. These different methods explore the relationship between elites and development outcomes from five angles: the participation and reaction of elites to institutional creation and change, how economic changes affect elite formation and circulation, elite perceptions of national welfare, the extent to which state capacity is part of elite self-identity, and how elites interact with non-elites.---------------The actions of today's global elite define in large measure the way in whichglobal developments, including the triple crisis of finance, food, and climatechange, is being played out. We look to elites as both the cause of and thesolution to the problems we face in economic development. In the crisiscontext, there is a strong focus on global elites. But existing work on incomeinequality reminds us that to understand the role of elites, we need to understandtheir position within the national development contexts.The study of elites is an inherently multidisciplinary endeavour which isreflected by the presence of rich veins of research on the topic in manyacademic disciplines. Too often there is little interaction between scholarsin these different areas because of diverse vocabularies and analytical lenses.At a UNU-WIDER conference-held in Helsinki on 14-16 June 2009-we specificallysought to bridge the disciplinary divide. Some 150 scholars participatedin our effort to take stock of what we know about the place of elites insociety, and in the growth and development processes. Throughout, we triedto keep in mind our objective of offering policy options. The chapters in thisvolume demonstrate that the role of elites touches upon a complex set ofissues. This volume cuts across disciplines and methodologies, providingmultidisciplinary insights. The authors include economists, sociologists,anthropologists, and political scientists. They take both global and nationalperspectives to advance our understanding of the behaviour and engagementof elites in the field of development.This effort is particularly relevant to development policy because as propoorframeworks have become prominent, the question of how to engageelites has become the subject of increasing discussion. State capacity-buildingand reform is in large measure enacted by elites. Those with political andcommercial influence can direct the trajectory of society and the spread ofinequality. And as more societies than ever are tied into the global economy,elites are those best positioned to take advantage of opportunities for knowledgetransfer and innovation-and come up with workable solutions to thechallenges faced by humankind.
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