Conclusions

Abstract

The situations of political elites have changed in three fundamental ways during the trans-Atlantic crisis. First, the pre-crisis power imbalance between economic and political elites has been altered. During the several decades preceding the crisis, economic elites were progressively freed from political control. This was a main cause of the crisis, and re-balancing the relationship is key to resolving it, and, we would like to believe, preventing a recurrence. It is important to bear in mind that political elites are tied to their nation-states and national constituencies, whereas economic elites are part of international or, if one prefers, global capitalism, which has no homeland. The EU, which began as a strictly economic entity, is best seen as an attempt by European political elites to create, step by step, a supranational political platform corresponding to the reach of international capitalism.