ABSTRACT
The concept ‘global elite’ is anchored in both the elite theoretical tradition and in a rather nebulous contemporary body of thought about globalization and its effects. Although contemporary elite analyses have managed to liberate themselves from ideological visions associated with the twentieth century debates, they are in danger of succumbing to a new ideological perspective, a new form of skewed vision, this time associated with the concept of globalization – understood as the increasing of worldwide economic, informational, political and cultural interaction and interdependence. The arguments of Rothkopf and Freeland illustrate well the strengths and weaknesses of the popular ‘global elite’ hypothesis. Rothkopf argues that globalization spawned a powerful ‘global elite’, also labelled a ‘superclass’ or a ‘new class without a country’, that powerfully influences global politics. The family of arguments that depict ‘global elites’ as a semi-autonomous executive segment of the much wider and more powerful ‘transnational capitalist class’ is quite sizable.
