The International Circulation of Elites: Knowledge, Entrepreneurialand Political

International migration analysis often focuses on mass migration rather than on the international mobility of elites, which is the focus of this paper. The paper offers a three-fold classification of elites: (a) knowledge elites, (b) entrepreneurial elites and (c) political elites. We explore the concept of elites and their main motivation to move across nations and review indirect empirical evidence relevant to this type of mobility, highlighting some channels through which elites can affect international development.international migration, entrepreneurial, political migrants, talent mobility

Using Centroidal Voronoi Tessellations to Scale Up the Multi-dimensional Archive of Phenotypic Elites Algorithm

The recently introduced Multi-dimensional Archive of Phenotypic Elites (MAP-Elites) is an evolutionary algorithm capable of producing a large archive of diverse, high-performing solutions in a single run. It works by discretizing a continuous feature space into unique regions according to the desired discretization per dimension. While simple, this algorithm has a main drawback: it cannot scale to high-dimensional feature spaces since the number of regions increase exponentially with the number of dimensions. In this paper, we address this limitation by introducing a simple extension of MAP-Elites that has a constant, pre-defined number of regions irrespective of the dimensionality of the feature space. Our main insight is that methods from computational geometry could partition a high-dimensional space into well-spread geometric regions. In particular, our algorithm uses a centroidal Voronoi tessellation (CVT) to divide the feature space into a desired number of regions; it then places every generated individual in its closest region, replacing a less fit one if the region is already occupied. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the new "CVT-MAP-Elites" algorithm in high-dimensional feature spaces through comparisons against MAP-Elites in maze navigation and hexapod locomotion tasks

Economic Backwardness in Political Perspective

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 elites are unlikely to block development when there is a high degree of political competition, or when they are highly entrenched. It is only when political competition is limited and also their power is threatened that elites will block development. We also show that such blocking is more likely to arise when political stakes are higher, and that external threats may reduce the incentives to block. We argue that this model provides an interpretation for why Britain, Germany and the U.S. industrialized during the nineteenth century, while the landed aristocracy in Russia and Austria-Hungary blocked development.

Yugoslavism between the World Wars: indecisive nation-building

This article examines Yugoslav national programs of ruling political elites and its concrete implementation in education policy in interwar Yugoslavia. It is argued that at the beginning of the period Yugoslavism was not inherently incompatible with or subordinate to Serbian, Croatian or to a lesser degree Slovenian national ideas. However, the concrete ways in which Yugoslavism was formulated and adopted by ruling elites discredited the Yugoslav national idea and resulted in increasing delineation and polarization in the continuum of national ideas available in Yugoslavia. Throughout the three consecutive periods of political rule under scrutiny, ruling elites failed to reach a wider consensus regarding the Yugoslav national idea or to create a framework within which a constructive elaboration of Yugoslav national identity could take place. By the end of the interwar period, the Yugoslav national idea had become linked exclusively to conservatism, centralism, authoritarianism and, for non-Serbian elites at least, Serbian hegemony. Other national ideas gained significance as ideas providing viable alternatives for the regime’s Yugoslavism

Elites and institutions : literature review

Exploring elites and their relations to institutions can assist understanding the day-to-day realities of politics in Africa (Chabal and Daloz 1999, Amundsen 2001, Lindberg 2003). This review is a scoping exercise in what has been written on the subject in recent years. The main task of the review is to summarise current understandings of how elites work with and through political institutions in Africa. There is a huge literature in this subject area. We have tried to pick out a) that which is most pertinent and non-repetitive, and b) that which raises as many questions as it provides answers. On the whole we have focused on literature published in the last five to ten years and we have inclined towards the literature on Anglophone Africa. The review is presented as follows: Section 1 is an introduction to Africa’s recent political landscape and it introduces some of the major issues that appear in the literature. Section 2 provides some working definitions of elites, institutions and democratisation as three of the recurring themes in the review. Section 3 reviews literature broadly on democratisation in Africa and specifically on elections and elites. Section 4 examines how political parties have evolved over the last 15 years. Section 5 reviews the three branches of government and Section 6 briefly examines decentralisation and its relation to elites and politics. The remaining sections of the review move outside the more formal political structures to examine the media (Section 7), civil society (Section 8), women’s movements (Section 9), Trades unions (Section 10) and business associations (Section 11). The final Section 12 pulls out a number of gaps in the research that we have identified in the course of the review. Section 13 contains a complete bibliography of citations used in the review. It is crucial to remember that Africa’s experiences of democratisation are no more than 15 years old, and many scholars have cautioned that it is still very early to draw any definite conclusions (Amundsen 2001; Randall and Svasand 2002). Inhaltsverzeichnis: 1. Africa’s political landscape 3 * Diversity of ‘Africa’ 4 * Elections do not mean democracy 4 * Presidentialism 4 * Ethnicity 5 * Personal rule and patronage 5 2. Definitions 6 * Elites 6 * Political institutions 7 * Democratisation 8 3. Democratisation and elites 8 * Elections 9 * Elites and elections 13 4. Political parties 16 5. Branches of government 17 * The executive 17 * The legislature 18 * The Judiciary 20 6. Decentralisation 20 7. Media 21 * Radio 25 * Television 25 * Newspapers 25 * Internet 26 8. Civil society 26 9. Women’s movements 29 10. Trade unions 32 11. Business associations 34 12. Gaps in the research 36 13. Bibliography 3

Local values in local political culture and democracy; A review of hermeneutics among local elites

The reforms provided space for local elites, both traditionally based (Bangsawan) and political elites (Bureaucrats-Politicians) to contest in the arena of local democracy. It is in this arena that the value of the political culture of local elites is tested whether it can strengthen democracy or on the contrary weaken democracy in the midst of the process towards its death.(Ziblatt, 2019) where democracy, which actually places the people as the main focal point, becomes "blunted" by political oligarchy and personal elite domination (Fatah & Deni, 2019).(Fatah & Deni, 2019). Using Gadamer's Phenomenological and Hermeneutic Methods, this research analyses the actions of local elites in interpreting the local values of Jou Se Ngofa Ngare in the 2020 Ternate City Regional Election Arena. This research aims to find the meaning of Jou Se Ngofa Ngare local values in strengthening the cultural values of local politics and democracy. The results of the study revealed that [1] The meaning of local values in local political culture and democratic values is interpreted by local elites through the process of history, pre-understanding (prejudice), tradition and value authority of leaders (Sultan / Kolano) and cultural symbols [2] The stronger the meaning and application of local values, the stronger the meaning and application of the relationship between leaders (Jou) and the people (Ngofa Ngare) in strengthening local political culture and democratic valu

Elites and Institutional Persistence

Particular sets of institutions, once they become established in a society, have a strong tendency to persist. In this paper I argue that understanding how elites form and reproduce is key to understanding the persistence of institutions over time. I illustrate this idea with a simple political economy theory of institutions and through examples from Liberia, the US, South Africa and Germany I show how elites influence institutions. To change institutions requires having an understanding of how reforms influence the preferences, capabilities and strategies of elites.elites, political economy, persistence of institutions

Exploring the Relationship between Business Elite Networks and Redistributive Social Policies in Latin American Countries

Although the cohesion of business elites has been associated with income concentration and regressive policies, few studies have investigated in depth the role of business elite networks in macrosocial issues such as redistributive social policies. This research explores the relationship between business elite networks and redistributive social policies in several Latin American countries. To do so, this paper (1) examines business elite networks applying a network analysis of interlocking directorates, and (2) performs a cross-national comparative analysis of the cohesiveness of business elite networks, coverage and incidence of social protection and labor programs, and other variables. Results show that where business elites formed cohesive networks, social protection and labor programs were more inclusive. In conjunction with other factors, business cohesion plays a crucial role in business elites’ acceptance of redistributive social policies because it enables long-term cost-sharing agreements, reduces uncertainty and internal divergent interests, and facilitates inducement

The cultural elite in Latin America

"Seminar on Latin American Elites, Montevideo, Uruguay, June, 1965.""1636"--handwritten on coverIncludes bibliographical referencesSponsored by the Institute of International Studies, University of California ... [et al.

Do Local Elites Capture Natural Disaster Reconstruction Funds?

This paper examines the allocation of natural disaster reconstruction funds among cyclone victims in rural Fiji. During post-emergency periods, when good information about cyclone damage is available, do local elites, a powerful minority, capture housing construction materials? With effective targeting in both receipt and the amount received, local elites do not capture larger benefits. More severely affected victims are not early recipients, though, because the supply of reconstruction funds is limited during early periods. This invites early capture: Traditional kin elites receive benefits earlier than others in recipient villages.