Elite Studies: for a New Approach

Abstract

AbstractAfter a period of declining interest in elites among social scientists, elite studies are now reviving. But it is important to understand why the decline occurred. We examine the largely contradictory explanations put forward by John Scott and Mike Savage and their related proposals for new research. We suggest an alternative approach that, we believe, would prove more rewarding. This entails treating elites as ‘small‐N’ entities, clearly distinct from social classes. On this basis, elites can be characterised through ‘prosopographical’ methods—the construction of collective biographies of their members. More reliable accounts can thus be produced of the social composition of different elites and, in turn, questions can be addressed as to how far their skewed recruitment results from the processes through which they are formally constituted as well as from the composition of the ‘pools’ from which their recruitment primarily occurs. Further questions follow about the implications for both equality of opportunity also also for the waste of talent and loss of diversity in elite memberships and for the neglected issue of the quality and the effectiveness of elites in whatever field they exist.