Jack Hayward (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198280354
- eISBN:
- 9780191599422
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198280351.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
Are European elites losing touch with their peoples? The populist challenge to representative democracy is as old as democracy itself but its impact has differed between European countries. Should ...
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Are European elites losing touch with their peoples? The populist challenge to representative democracy is as old as democracy itself but its impact has differed between European countries. Should elected representatives respond to people's demands or to their needs? Is the press a reliable source of public information and a critical check on governments and powerful interests? Are political parties effectively mediating between leaders and mass publics or do they face a legitimacy crisis? Are parliaments able to enforce government accountability? Can the European Union and national governments persuade their peoples to accept the necessity of economic constraints upon their demands? The challenge to political leaders in liberal democracies is to deal realistically with problems without provoking public alienation from the political process, a challenge that they are finding increasingly difficult to face successfully.Less
Are European elites losing touch with their peoples? The populist challenge to representative democracy is as old as democracy itself but its impact has differed between European countries. Should elected representatives respond to people's demands or to their needs? Is the press a reliable source of public information and a critical check on governments and powerful interests? Are political parties effectively mediating between leaders and mass publics or do they face a legitimacy crisis? Are parliaments able to enforce government accountability? Can the European Union and national governments persuade their peoples to accept the necessity of economic constraints upon their demands? The challenge to political leaders in liberal democracies is to deal realistically with problems without provoking public alienation from the political process, a challenge that they are finding increasingly difficult to face successfully.
Edward C. Page and Vincent Wright (eds)
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198294467
- eISBN:
- 9780191600067
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198294468.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
Presents a comparative study of the senior civil service in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Greece, Denmark, and Sweden, which provides information about ...
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Presents a comparative study of the senior civil service in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Greece, Denmark, and Sweden, which provides information about the structures and the composition of the higher civil service, and its position in the political structure. Explores how the higher civil service has developed in the light of the massive changes in European societies over the past thirty years. These changes include the size of the top level of the civil service, the growing social diversity of its ranks, and the tendency to recruit from outside the civil service. Also examines whether wider social changes, such as the democratization of education, the growth of interest groups, and the increasing importance of the European Union have an impact on the higher levels of bureaucracy and produce similar patterns of change throughout Europe.Less
Presents a comparative study of the senior civil service in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Greece, Denmark, and Sweden, which provides information about the structures and the composition of the higher civil service, and its position in the political structure. Explores how the higher civil service has developed in the light of the massive changes in European societies over the past thirty years. These changes include the size of the top level of the civil service, the growing social diversity of its ranks, and the tendency to recruit from outside the civil service. Also examines whether wider social changes, such as the democratization of education, the growth of interest groups, and the increasing importance of the European Union have an impact on the higher levels of bureaucracy and produce similar patterns of change throughout Europe.
Asifa Hussain and William Miller
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199280711
- eISBN:
- 9780191604102
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199280711.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
Since 9/11, multiculturalism has been under attack and Islamophobia has increased. Questions were placed in the 2003 British Social Attitudes Survey and its Scottish counterpart to compare the level ...
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Since 9/11, multiculturalism has been under attack and Islamophobia has increased. Questions were placed in the 2003 British Social Attitudes Survey and its Scottish counterpart to compare the level of Islamophobia in Scotland and England. Islamophobia was significantly higher in England. Analysis showed that the majority population in Scotland differed significantly from the majority in England. In particular, English nationalism encouraged Islamophobia while Scottish nationalism did not. Unlike elite-level nationalists, street-level nationalists in Scotland were not particularly inclusive or multiculturalist compared to the majority of Scots. Street-level Scottish nationalists were less Islamophobic than the majority of English, and far less Islamophobic than street-level nationalists in England.Less
Since 9/11, multiculturalism has been under attack and Islamophobia has increased. Questions were placed in the 2003 British Social Attitudes Survey and its Scottish counterpart to compare the level of Islamophobia in Scotland and England. Islamophobia was significantly higher in England. Analysis showed that the majority population in Scotland differed significantly from the majority in England. In particular, English nationalism encouraged Islamophobia while Scottish nationalism did not. Unlike elite-level nationalists, street-level nationalists in Scotland were not particularly inclusive or multiculturalist compared to the majority of Scots. Street-level Scottish nationalists were less Islamophobic than the majority of English, and far less Islamophobic than street-level nationalists in England.
Paul Windolf
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199256976
- eISBN:
- 9780191719639
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199256976.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
Corporate networks form part of the institutional structure of markets and the business environment, enabling firms to coordinate their behaviour and regulate competition. Networks perform a number ...
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Corporate networks form part of the institutional structure of markets and the business environment, enabling firms to coordinate their behaviour and regulate competition. Networks perform a number of economic functions: they reduce information asymmetries and uncertainty, and facilitate the redistribution of risk between banks, firms, and investors. Within these networks, firms collectively monitor one another and owners supervise their managers. This book analyses comparative data on interlocking directorates and capital networks between large corporations in the United States and five countries in Europe: Germany, Great Britain, France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The structure of corporate networks is shaped by the traditions, culture, and institutions of a country. Corporate networks may be considered as a configuration of firms that are connected to one another by managers (interlocks), or as a configuration of managers who meet each other on the board of directors (network of the economic elite). The resources on which the dominance of the economic elite is based are bureaucratic power, property rights, and social capital. Bureaucratic control over a company is linked with property rights in the context of specific network configurations that vary between countries and lead to differing forms of managerial control. In the transitional economies, the type of capitalism that is evolving somewhat resembles Western managerial capitalism, but with certain significant differences. Privatization created a relatively high concentration of ownership. There is no clear-cut separation of ownership and control, but rather a balance of power between managers and owners.Less
Corporate networks form part of the institutional structure of markets and the business environment, enabling firms to coordinate their behaviour and regulate competition. Networks perform a number of economic functions: they reduce information asymmetries and uncertainty, and facilitate the redistribution of risk between banks, firms, and investors. Within these networks, firms collectively monitor one another and owners supervise their managers. This book analyses comparative data on interlocking directorates and capital networks between large corporations in the United States and five countries in Europe: Germany, Great Britain, France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The structure of corporate networks is shaped by the traditions, culture, and institutions of a country. Corporate networks may be considered as a configuration of firms that are connected to one another by managers (interlocks), or as a configuration of managers who meet each other on the board of directors (network of the economic elite). The resources on which the dominance of the economic elite is based are bureaucratic power, property rights, and social capital. Bureaucratic control over a company is linked with property rights in the context of specific network configurations that vary between countries and lead to differing forms of managerial control. In the transitional economies, the type of capitalism that is evolving somewhat resembles Western managerial capitalism, but with certain significant differences. Privatization created a relatively high concentration of ownership. There is no clear-cut separation of ownership and control, but rather a balance of power between managers and owners.
G. E. R. Lloyd
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199567874
- eISBN:
- 9780191721649
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567874.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
This introductory chapter outlines the strategy of the book as a whole. This book is an investigation of the different conceptions that have been entertained in eight major areas of human experience: ...
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This introductory chapter outlines the strategy of the book as a whole. This book is an investigation of the different conceptions that have been entertained in eight major areas of human experience: philosophy, mathematics, history, medicine, art, law, religion, and science. One recurrent theme is the different ways in which those intellectual disciplines have developed in different ancient and modern societies and the roles of elites in such processes, both positive ones, in encouraging the professionalization of the investigation, and negative, when elites lay down restrictive definitions of the subject-matter concerned. A second is the need to challenge modern Western assumptions on the nature of each discipline. A third is the struggle between different disciplines for hegemonic status.Less
This introductory chapter outlines the strategy of the book as a whole. This book is an investigation of the different conceptions that have been entertained in eight major areas of human experience: philosophy, mathematics, history, medicine, art, law, religion, and science. One recurrent theme is the different ways in which those intellectual disciplines have developed in different ancient and modern societies and the roles of elites in such processes, both positive ones, in encouraging the professionalization of the investigation, and negative, when elites lay down restrictive definitions of the subject-matter concerned. A second is the need to challenge modern Western assumptions on the nature of each discipline. A third is the struggle between different disciplines for hegemonic status.
Edward C. Page and Vincent Wright
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198294467
- eISBN:
- 9780191600067
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198294468.003.0013
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
The conclusion starts by noting that there are clearly highly diverse trends in the development of bureaucracy in Western Europe, and that, although in some countries patterns of change are quite ...
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The conclusion starts by noting that there are clearly highly diverse trends in the development of bureaucracy in Western Europe, and that, although in some countries patterns of change are quite distinct, change does not appear to have followed any one expected pattern or scale. It then looks at two central questions for the role of bureaucracy: its political controllability and efficiency. These enable us to point to differences in broad underlying principles that reflect how different countries have traditionally understood and dealt with these two central problems, allow us to make important distinctions between different forms of bureaucracies, and explore the causes and character of changes in the senior ranks of post‐war bureaucracies. The two central questions are then examined in sections on political control, performance, managerial changes, and changes in political control. The concluding section finds that there is a common theme underlying the development of relationships between bureaucratic and political elites that applies to most of the country studies: a deinstitutionalization or personalization of political trust. Understood as a question of trust, change in bureaucracy is linked to much wider political changes that have been identified outside the literature on bureaucracy.Less
The conclusion starts by noting that there are clearly highly diverse trends in the development of bureaucracy in Western Europe, and that, although in some countries patterns of change are quite distinct, change does not appear to have followed any one expected pattern or scale. It then looks at two central questions for the role of bureaucracy: its political controllability and efficiency. These enable us to point to differences in broad underlying principles that reflect how different countries have traditionally understood and dealt with these two central problems, allow us to make important distinctions between different forms of bureaucracies, and explore the causes and character of changes in the senior ranks of post‐war bureaucracies. The two central questions are then examined in sections on political control, performance, managerial changes, and changes in political control. The concluding section finds that there is a common theme underlying the development of relationships between bureaucratic and political elites that applies to most of the country studies: a deinstitutionalization or personalization of political trust. Understood as a question of trust, change in bureaucracy is linked to much wider political changes that have been identified outside the literature on bureaucracy.
Elaine Chalus
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199280100
- eISBN:
- 9780191707087
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199280100.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
The conclusion makes a case for women's involvement in political life, arguing that it needs to be understood in context. By no means all women, even at the level of the political elite, were ...
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The conclusion makes a case for women's involvement in political life, arguing that it needs to be understood in context. By no means all women, even at the level of the political elite, were politically active, yet women were an integral part of the political world of the 18th century. For many, involvement in political life was motivated by familial considerations, but the effectiveness of such involvement should not be underestimated. Furthermore, while questions about whether women made a difference might be hard to evaluate in national terms, in local or personal politics — in terms of places gained, preferments and promotions secured, votes won, and supporters wooed — there can be little doubt that they did.Less
The conclusion makes a case for women's involvement in political life, arguing that it needs to be understood in context. By no means all women, even at the level of the political elite, were politically active, yet women were an integral part of the political world of the 18th century. For many, involvement in political life was motivated by familial considerations, but the effectiveness of such involvement should not be underestimated. Furthermore, while questions about whether women made a difference might be hard to evaluate in national terms, in local or personal politics — in terms of places gained, preferments and promotions secured, votes won, and supporters wooed — there can be little doubt that they did.
Futoshi Yamauchi
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780198292746
- eISBN:
- 9780191603891
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198292740.003.0011
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter examines the ‘industrial policy’ executed in the industrial district, Kawamata. The local government and associations made various attempts to support the development of silk weaving ...
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This chapter examines the ‘industrial policy’ executed in the industrial district, Kawamata. The local government and associations made various attempts to support the development of silk weaving industry. An investigation into these practices and actions, as well as the conflicts within the regions, shows that both the silk traders and the rural elites played key roles in the process. Their activities were motivated by the widespread understanding within the region that the rural elites had to take responsibility for the development of the regional economy.Less
This chapter examines the ‘industrial policy’ executed in the industrial district, Kawamata. The local government and associations made various attempts to support the development of silk weaving industry. An investigation into these practices and actions, as well as the conflicts within the regions, shows that both the silk traders and the rural elites played key roles in the process. Their activities were motivated by the widespread understanding within the region that the rural elites had to take responsibility for the development of the regional economy.
Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- November 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199261185
- eISBN:
- 9780191601507
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199261180.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
Two related historical facts welcomed liberal democracy or the liberal-democratic state. On one hand, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, social contract theory imposed a major setback to ...
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Two related historical facts welcomed liberal democracy or the liberal-democratic state. On one hand, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, social contract theory imposed a major setback to the divine legitimacy of political rulers. On the other hand, the capitalist revolution–embracing the mercantile, the industrial, and the liberal revolutions–changed the basic way of appropriating the economic surplus. This no longer depended on the state’s control but increasingly depended on the realization of profits in the market. For the first time in history, authoritarian regimes ceased to be a necessary condition for the ruling classes’ survival. Democracy turned gradually into synonym of the good state. Eventually, with the acknowledgement of political rights–specifically of universal suffrage––liberal democracy emerged. This process took one century–the time for the bourgeois ruling class to stop fearing expropriation by the poor who democracy entitled to vote.Less
Two related historical facts welcomed liberal democracy or the liberal-democratic state. On one hand, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, social contract theory imposed a major setback to the divine legitimacy of political rulers. On the other hand, the capitalist revolution–embracing the mercantile, the industrial, and the liberal revolutions–changed the basic way of appropriating the economic surplus. This no longer depended on the state’s control but increasingly depended on the realization of profits in the market. For the first time in history, authoritarian regimes ceased to be a necessary condition for the ruling classes’ survival. Democracy turned gradually into synonym of the good state. Eventually, with the acknowledgement of political rights–specifically of universal suffrage––liberal democracy emerged. This process took one century–the time for the bourgeois ruling class to stop fearing expropriation by the poor who democracy entitled to vote.
Richard J. Goodrich
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199213139
- eISBN:
- 9780191695841
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199213139.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
This book examines the attempt by the 5th-century ascetic writer John Cassian to influence and shape the development of Western monasticism. The book's close analysis of Cassian's earliest work (The ...
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This book examines the attempt by the 5th-century ascetic writer John Cassian to influence and shape the development of Western monasticism. The book's close analysis of Cassian's earliest work (The Institutes) focuses on his interaction with the values and preconceptions of a traditional Roman elite, as well as his engagement with contemporary writers. By placing The Institutes in context, the book demonstrates just how revolutionary this foundational work was for its time and milieu.Less
This book examines the attempt by the 5th-century ascetic writer John Cassian to influence and shape the development of Western monasticism. The book's close analysis of Cassian's earliest work (The Institutes) focuses on his interaction with the values and preconceptions of a traditional Roman elite, as well as his engagement with contemporary writers. By placing The Institutes in context, the book demonstrates just how revolutionary this foundational work was for its time and milieu.
John McGarry and Brendan O'Leary
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- August 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199266579
- eISBN:
- 9780191601446
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199266573.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
This chapter criticizes five popular arguments central to the thinking of liberal integrationists: (i) extremist political and religious elites are responsible for conflicts; (ii) conflicts have ...
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This chapter criticizes five popular arguments central to the thinking of liberal integrationists: (i) extremist political and religious elites are responsible for conflicts; (ii) conflicts have fundamental economic and material foundations; (iii) conflicts flow from archaic religious and non-religious political cultures; (iv) segregation is the key social and structural cause of conflict; and (v) individual discrimination is the primary motor of conflict. The authors insist instead on the ethno-national nature of the conflict and the need for appropriate political means to address this.Less
This chapter criticizes five popular arguments central to the thinking of liberal integrationists: (i) extremist political and religious elites are responsible for conflicts; (ii) conflicts have fundamental economic and material foundations; (iii) conflicts flow from archaic religious and non-religious political cultures; (iv) segregation is the key social and structural cause of conflict; and (v) individual discrimination is the primary motor of conflict. The authors insist instead on the ethno-national nature of the conflict and the need for appropriate political means to address this.
Evan Mawdsley and Stephen White
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198297383
- eISBN:
- 9780191599842
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198297386.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Russian Politics
The USSR was dominated by its ruling Communist Party, and the party was in turn dominated by a political elite that was represented in its Central Committee. Nearly two thousand individuals were ...
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The USSR was dominated by its ruling Communist Party, and the party was in turn dominated by a political elite that was represented in its Central Committee. Nearly two thousand individuals were members of the Central Committee between 1917 and 1991, who may be divided into four distinct political generations from the professional revolutionaries born in the late nineteenth century to the post‐war generation that was beginning to enter the political elite in the Gorbachev years. There were considerable variations over time in the characteristics of the Central Committee, including the extent to which its membership was replaced at successive party congresses. But a close relationship developed between particular occupational positions and Central Committee membership, a ‘job‐slot’ system that lasted until the final years of communist rule. The Central Committee as an institution was generally marginal to the political process. But it met more frequently and took more decisions in the 1920s and late 1980s, and on several occasions, its meetings were decisive in resolving leadership conflicts; they also ventilated policy alternatives, and sometimes disagreements. In the last years of communist rule, the elite sought increasingly to transform their positions of political power into the more enduring advantage of property, and this allowed many of them to maintain their elite status into the post‐communist period. As well as printed sources, the study draws on recently opened party archives and about a hundred interviews with members of the Brezhnev‐era Central Committee.Less
The USSR was dominated by its ruling Communist Party, and the party was in turn dominated by a political elite that was represented in its Central Committee. Nearly two thousand individuals were members of the Central Committee between 1917 and 1991, who may be divided into four distinct political generations from the professional revolutionaries born in the late nineteenth century to the post‐war generation that was beginning to enter the political elite in the Gorbachev years. There were considerable variations over time in the characteristics of the Central Committee, including the extent to which its membership was replaced at successive party congresses. But a close relationship developed between particular occupational positions and Central Committee membership, a ‘job‐slot’ system that lasted until the final years of communist rule. The Central Committee as an institution was generally marginal to the political process. But it met more frequently and took more decisions in the 1920s and late 1980s, and on several occasions, its meetings were decisive in resolving leadership conflicts; they also ventilated policy alternatives, and sometimes disagreements. In the last years of communist rule, the elite sought increasingly to transform their positions of political power into the more enduring advantage of property, and this allowed many of them to maintain their elite status into the post‐communist period. As well as printed sources, the study draws on recently opened party archives and about a hundred interviews with members of the Brezhnev‐era Central Committee.
Cristina E. Parau
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266403
- eISBN:
- 9780191879593
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266403.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Legal Profession and Ethics
Studies of the fate of Judiciaries in post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have been rare and attempts at causal explanation rarer. This study found that interlocked transnational ...
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Studies of the fate of Judiciaries in post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have been rare and attempts at causal explanation rarer. This study found that interlocked transnational networking empowered a minority of elite Judiciary revisionists to entrench their institutional template in Eastern European constitutions, setting these transitional democracies on a trajectory toward a global trend of the judicialization of politics. The first, crucial step in that process is traced: the formal disempowerment of democracy through Judiciary revisions that ordinary people and politicians in Central and Eastern Europe little heeded. The causal nexus converging on this outcome is explained. Why it matters is because the revisionist template reorients that most venerable of non-majoritarian institutions beyond adjudication of the guilt or innocence of subjects of state power under legal certainty – the classical role of modern courts – toward the improvisation of public policy, with or without the consent of the majority of the governed, by ‘finding’ it in constitutions; the unique legitimacy of which derives from the prior ratification of a supermajority. The question of who shall have the final disposition of contested constitutional meaning – the Executive, Legislature, Judiciary, the People, or All of these – implicates sovereignty itself and whom it shall rest on: the last word is sovereign for practical purposes. The interdisciplinarity of this study will appeal to a wide audience: scholars of law and politics and socio-legal studies, social scientists researching elite transnationalism and European integration beyond the EU, even institutional design practitioners.Less
Studies of the fate of Judiciaries in post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have been rare and attempts at causal explanation rarer. This study found that interlocked transnational networking empowered a minority of elite Judiciary revisionists to entrench their institutional template in Eastern European constitutions, setting these transitional democracies on a trajectory toward a global trend of the judicialization of politics. The first, crucial step in that process is traced: the formal disempowerment of democracy through Judiciary revisions that ordinary people and politicians in Central and Eastern Europe little heeded. The causal nexus converging on this outcome is explained. Why it matters is because the revisionist template reorients that most venerable of non-majoritarian institutions beyond adjudication of the guilt or innocence of subjects of state power under legal certainty – the classical role of modern courts – toward the improvisation of public policy, with or without the consent of the majority of the governed, by ‘finding’ it in constitutions; the unique legitimacy of which derives from the prior ratification of a supermajority. The question of who shall have the final disposition of contested constitutional meaning – the Executive, Legislature, Judiciary, the People, or All of these – implicates sovereignty itself and whom it shall rest on: the last word is sovereign for practical purposes. The interdisciplinarity of this study will appeal to a wide audience: scholars of law and politics and socio-legal studies, social scientists researching elite transnationalism and European integration beyond the EU, even institutional design practitioners.
Evan Mawdsley and Stephen White
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198297383
- eISBN:
- 9780191599842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198297386.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Russian Politics
The Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party, which constituted the political elite of Soviet Russia, was in Lenin's time, relatively homogeneous and was entirely composed of people who had ...
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The Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party, which constituted the political elite of Soviet Russia, was in Lenin's time, relatively homogeneous and was entirely composed of people who had been members of the underground Bolshevik party. It is, however, possible to make some differentiation between members of this Central Committee elite, and two examples of ‘types’, one from the intelligentsia and one from the working class, are N. N. Krestinskii and A. A. Andreev. Even in this period, the Central Committee was not a policy‐making body, but all its members were important policymakers in other party and state organs.Less
The Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party, which constituted the political elite of Soviet Russia, was in Lenin's time, relatively homogeneous and was entirely composed of people who had been members of the underground Bolshevik party. It is, however, possible to make some differentiation between members of this Central Committee elite, and two examples of ‘types’, one from the intelligentsia and one from the working class, are N. N. Krestinskii and A. A. Andreev. Even in this period, the Central Committee was not a policy‐making body, but all its members were important policymakers in other party and state organs.
Evan Mawdsley and Stephen White
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198297383
- eISBN:
- 9780191599842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198297386.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Russian Politics
After 1923 the size of the Central Committee increased, but membership was still overwhelmingly made up of pre‐1917 party members or Old Bolsheviks. The system of ‘job‐slot representation’ quickly ...
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After 1923 the size of the Central Committee increased, but membership was still overwhelmingly made up of pre‐1917 party members or Old Bolsheviks. The system of ‘job‐slot representation’ quickly took shape and approached maturity in 1934. Ironically, this apparent stability coincided with the destruction of much of the ‘first generation’ leadership in Stalin's purges of 1937‐38. Two examples of new leaders who added to the CC in the 1920s and early 1930s, who had much in common with the makers of the 1917 revolution and who fell victim to the purges, were I. M. Vareikis and P. O. Liubchenko. The involvement of the Central Committee in the purges was complex, and its great extent was partly explained by the integrated nature of the elite.Less
After 1923 the size of the Central Committee increased, but membership was still overwhelmingly made up of pre‐1917 party members or Old Bolsheviks. The system of ‘job‐slot representation’ quickly took shape and approached maturity in 1934. Ironically, this apparent stability coincided with the destruction of much of the ‘first generation’ leadership in Stalin's purges of 1937‐38. Two examples of new leaders who added to the CC in the 1920s and early 1930s, who had much in common with the makers of the 1917 revolution and who fell victim to the purges, were I. M. Vareikis and P. O. Liubchenko. The involvement of the Central Committee in the purges was complex, and its great extent was partly explained by the integrated nature of the elite.
Evan Mawdsley and Stephen White
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198297383
- eISBN:
- 9780191599842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198297386.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Russian Politics
The purges were followed by a very high turnover of members of the Central Committee and in effect a new generation of leaders appeared, younger and more from the mass of workers and peasants than ...
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The purges were followed by a very high turnover of members of the Central Committee and in effect a new generation of leaders appeared, younger and more from the mass of workers and peasants than their predecessors. Members of this ‘second generation’ would dominate Soviet politics until the 1980s. The job‐slot system continued in the form it had reached in 1934, although there was now more stability and personal security. Examples of a new Stalinist generation were N. S. Baibakov and N. K. Patolichev, one a technocrat, the other a party generalist. The Central Committee was also much larger now, but had less real influence in politics, compared to the supreme leader and the Politburo/Presidium.Less
The purges were followed by a very high turnover of members of the Central Committee and in effect a new generation of leaders appeared, younger and more from the mass of workers and peasants than their predecessors. Members of this ‘second generation’ would dominate Soviet politics until the 1980s. The job‐slot system continued in the form it had reached in 1934, although there was now more stability and personal security. Examples of a new Stalinist generation were N. S. Baibakov and N. K. Patolichev, one a technocrat, the other a party generalist. The Central Committee was also much larger now, but had less real influence in politics, compared to the supreme leader and the Politburo/Presidium.
Evan Mawdsley and Stephen White
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198297383
- eISBN:
- 9780191599842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198297386.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Russian Politics
Although there was turmoil in this period with the rise and fall of N. S. Khrushchev, there was stability in the role and make up of the Central Committee elite. The events of 1957 and the ...
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Although there was turmoil in this period with the rise and fall of N. S. Khrushchev, there was stability in the role and make up of the Central Committee elite. The events of 1957 and the ‘anti‐party group’ strengthened the power of the CC elite as a collective. That the membership was similar to that of the late Stalin years is shown by the careers of N. I. Zhurin, V. N. Novikov, and N. G. Egorychev, representative of regional agricultural leaders, technocrats, and the party bureaucracy, respectively. The CC elite saw itself as more of a coherent and privileged group during this periodLess
Although there was turmoil in this period with the rise and fall of N. S. Khrushchev, there was stability in the role and make up of the Central Committee elite. The events of 1957 and the ‘anti‐party group’ strengthened the power of the CC elite as a collective. That the membership was similar to that of the late Stalin years is shown by the careers of N. I. Zhurin, V. N. Novikov, and N. G. Egorychev, representative of regional agricultural leaders, technocrats, and the party bureaucracy, respectively. The CC elite saw itself as more of a coherent and privileged group during this period
Evan Mawdsley and Stephen White
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198297383
- eISBN:
- 9780191599842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198297386.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Russian Politics
The Brezhnev years were ones of stability for the USSR, and still more so for its political elite. The Central Committee expanded in size, and its composition—based on the job‐slot system—became ...
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The Brezhnev years were ones of stability for the USSR, and still more so for its political elite. The Central Committee expanded in size, and its composition—based on the job‐slot system—became increasingly predictable. Its typical members were from the ‘second generation’, born in the first two decades of the century: people like Zaporozh’e party first secretary M. N. Vsevolozhskii, or agricultural procurements minister Z. N. Nuriev, or General P. A. Gorchakov. The Central Committee itself met less frequently during these years, and was marginalized as an arena for collective decision‐making.Less
The Brezhnev years were ones of stability for the USSR, and still more so for its political elite. The Central Committee expanded in size, and its composition—based on the job‐slot system—became increasingly predictable. Its typical members were from the ‘second generation’, born in the first two decades of the century: people like Zaporozh’e party first secretary M. N. Vsevolozhskii, or agricultural procurements minister Z. N. Nuriev, or General P. A. Gorchakov. The Central Committee itself met less frequently during these years, and was marginalized as an arena for collective decision‐making.
Evan Mawdsley and Stephen White
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198297383
- eISBN:
- 9780191599842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198297386.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Russian Politics
The Central Committee was never a ‘representative’ elite. Like other revolutionary elites, it was disproportionately male and well educated; but it was generally more representative of the mass ...
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The Central Committee was never a ‘representative’ elite. Like other revolutionary elites, it was disproportionately male and well educated; but it was generally more representative of the mass membership and of the population as a whole than the national party leadership. A system for the distribution of material benefits gradually developed to service its requirements, one that came increasingly to identify Central Committee members as a privileged group of a kind that had been characterized by Trotsky as a bureaucracy. But there were internal divisions and internal safeguards that helped to prevent the formation of an exploitative as well as politically dominant group.Less
The Central Committee was never a ‘representative’ elite. Like other revolutionary elites, it was disproportionately male and well educated; but it was generally more representative of the mass membership and of the population as a whole than the national party leadership. A system for the distribution of material benefits gradually developed to service its requirements, one that came increasingly to identify Central Committee members as a privileged group of a kind that had been characterized by Trotsky as a bureaucracy. But there were internal divisions and internal safeguards that helped to prevent the formation of an exploitative as well as politically dominant group.
Evan Mawdsley and Stephen White
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198297383
- eISBN:
- 9780191599842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198297386.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Russian Politics
Across the years of its existence, the USSR witnessed three elite revolutions: in 1917, when the Tsarist elite was replaced by a Bolshevik elite of professional revolutionaries; during the Purges, ...
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Across the years of its existence, the USSR witnessed three elite revolutions: in 1917, when the Tsarist elite was replaced by a Bolshevik elite of professional revolutionaries; during the Purges, when the ‘second generation’ moved into positions of power; and under Gorbachev, when levels of turnover in the Central Committee were at their highest, although they were not sufficient to bring many of the ‘fourth generation’ into the political elite. Considerable numbers of the Central Committee membership, however, retained their status into the post‐communist years, and they took part in a wider transition from political position (which had become insecure) to the more enduring advantage of property.Less
Across the years of its existence, the USSR witnessed three elite revolutions: in 1917, when the Tsarist elite was replaced by a Bolshevik elite of professional revolutionaries; during the Purges, when the ‘second generation’ moved into positions of power; and under Gorbachev, when levels of turnover in the Central Committee were at their highest, although they were not sufficient to bring many of the ‘fourth generation’ into the political elite. Considerable numbers of the Central Committee membership, however, retained their status into the post‐communist years, and they took part in a wider transition from political position (which had become insecure) to the more enduring advantage of property.
