ABSTRACT
The co-evolution of modern capitalism and the modern state has brought forth a symbiotic relationship between economic and political elites. This relationship, however, cannot be described as a “pre-established harmony”, but rather as ambivalent and dissociative. Neither elite can do without the other and yet each follow their own action logics, partly in conflictive opposition to one another, which can have a disadvantageous effect on the political and economic orders in which they act. This chapter investigates the modes of elite interaction, and their historical, political and economic contexts, drawing on empirical evidence from the 1848/49 beginnings of German parliamentarianism, East German state socialism until 1989, and the process of European integration, including the impact of the 2009 world financial crisis on European politics.
