ABSTRACT
The survival of strategic elites is no less important for the fortunes of men than is the survival of the individuals and social groups to whom they are attached, though the understanding of the aspect of social structure and change is limited. The decline of capitalist dynasties and the rise of a new managerial elite parallel the change from family to corporate capitalism. When elite individuals lose their effectiveness, however, their exchange and replacement are in order. Both first-generation and birth elites thus have ample opportunity to become parasitic human beings. The rise and fall of individuals and groups into and out of strategic elite positions is eternal—accelerated, there slowed down—increasing as recruitment on the basis of individual achievement increases. Elites, collectively, are prone to develop certain characteristic weaknesses as are their individual members. The routinization of selection eventually leads to a discrepancy between substance and spirit, and to the triumph of ritualism.
