Economic Elites Research Articles

The Contribution of Street Libraries in Australia to Literacy, Community and the Gift Economy

ABSTRACT This paper examines the phenomenon of Australian ‘street libraries’. Enthusiasts have suggested that they contribute to their communal fabric, providing increased sociability and promoting reading and literacy. Street libraries have been associated with ‘placemaking’ activities. Seen as part of the ‘gift’ economy, their ‘Take a book. Give a Book. Share a Book.’ motto promotes their role in recycling. International research has contested some of these claims, with some critics suggesting their role in addressing ‘book deserts’ is limited, that they represent a highly individualised paternalism by social and economic elites, and they are associated with the neoliberal assault on public libraries. This paper finds mixed evidence in support for the views of advocates and critics. Australian street libraries are skewed towards localities with the highest socio-economic measures of advantage. They are less ‘interventions’ into the landscape, as associated with private ownership. Street librarians are not, however, disproportionately urban, and their maintainers have greater economic diversity than their ‘elite’ characterisation would imply. Street libraries can be seen as an example of a gift economy, recycling about $11 million in value in 2021. In addition, some social capital advantages in establishing and maintaining a street library can be identified.

Political economy of economic policy - the monetary reconstruction program (Serbia 1994) as a case study

The paper deals with initiation and destiny of the unique 1994 Program of combating the extreme Serbian hyperinflation. Despite the originality of the Program and decisiveness with which the related steps had been undertaken, the Program lasted not much more than half a year. It turned out to be unsustainable as it is collided with inefficient institutional framework where contracts and rule of law were not honored, and employees, in self-managed firms, decided on their own remuneration. We show that for lasting stabilization a farreaching institutional reform was needed, and for implementing such reform an equally radical reform of the political system was necessary. However, there was not political will for these reforms, since they would oust the then political and economic elite from the power.

Made in Hong Kong:Transpacific Networks and a New History of Globalization by Peter E. Hamilton

Reviewed by: Made in Hong Kong:Transpacific Networks and a New History of Globalization by Peter E. Hamilton Kent Wan Peter E. Hamilton. Made in Hong Kong:Transpacific Networks and a New History of Globalization. Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University. New York: Columbia University Press, 2021. 419 pp. Hardcover, ($140), softcover ($35.00), or e-book. At a time when mainland cities such as Shanghai appear poised to replace Hong Kong as China's preeminent metropolises, it certainly seems quaint to study a former British colony that has been plagued by political instability in recent years. Peter E. Hamilton, however, points out that Hong Kong was not only the engine that made possible Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms but also a vital linchpin of Sino-American trade relations, which have been fraying since Donald Trump's ascension to the presidency (2). The monograph under review is a historical work focusing on Sino-American economic ties that were nurtured by men of privilege who used British Hong Kong as a base of operations to enrich themselves through blossoming commercial interactions between China and the United States. Hamilton's work uses Hong Kong history as a case study to argue that it was not "Confucian values" such as "heightened levels of paternalism, discipline, and respect for education" that ensured the economic rise of the East Asian "tigers"; in the case of this city, the determined efforts of powerful and self-serving merchants put it on a path to prosperity that overwhelmingly benefited the economic elites (24, 221). Hamilton's work is the first to delineate the roles played by Chinese merchants in Hong Kong who cultivated relations with American businessmen, academics, and officials to create mutually beneficial commercial ties, so much so that by the 1970s the United States, not Britain, was the dominant economic power in Hong Kong (158–159). The analytical focus of Hamilton's monograph extends far beyond the history of Hong Kong, as—besides arguing that Hong Kong underwent a US-led "informal decolonization" in the 1970s due to the dominance of American companies and their local allies—he seeks to find in the city the origin story of Sino-American economic interdependence (14–15). In addition to an introduction and a conclusion, this monograph has eight chapters that are organized in chronological order to advance Hamilton's thesis concerning Hong Kong's emergence as the nexus of Sino-American trade relations from 1949 to 1997. Hamilton concentrates on the kuashang (跨商), or "straddling merchants," men originally from China who found themselves in Hong Kong and then utilized their personal networks, educational backgrounds, and financial resources not only to save their own companies during a period of regime change in China but also to establish dynasties that are still pillars of the city's ruling class (3, 283–84). Recognizing the imminent arrival of a pax Americana (as many of these kuashang had either served with Americans during the Second World War or attended elite American universities), they were determined to perpetuate the access their families had to American social and financial capital by sending their offspring to the United States to accumulate further professional or educational experiences (67–68, 216–17, 287). Hong Kong's kuashang brought American expertise and social and financial capital to Hong Kong through partnerships and business agreements with American firms, a process that was instrumental to the city's economic rise in the 1970s (193–95, 208). The economic importance of Hong Kong motivated Chinese leaders to promise the implementation of the "one country, two systems" formula after [End Page E-7] 1997 to ensure the maintenance of the city's capitalist economic system, which had become vital to China's liberalization, especially since the kuashang were important early investors in Guangdong even before Beijing's formal announcement of economic reforms (223, 227, 277). By the 1980s and 1990s, American companies often partnered with Hong Kong firms to make full use of low-wage workers in Guangdong to manufacture goods destined for the American market (220, 264–65). It is therefore not surprising that after the Tiananmen tragedy of 1989, Hong Kong's economic elites, in cooperation...

Мобилизация по партийной линии военнообязанных коммунистов в Ханты-Мансийском национальном округе на начальном этапе Великой Отечественной войны

The article based on the materials of the State Archive of the Socio-Political History of the Tyumen region examines one of the little-studied aspects of mobilization measures carried out at the initial stage of the Great Patriotic War on the territory of the Khanty-Mansiysk National District, which until August 1944 was part of the Omsk and then the Tyumen regions. Based on a selective analysis of the numerical, age, professional composition, seniority of the leadership of communists and Komsomol members, called up by the district and district military registration and enlistment offices in the ranks of the Red Army from June 1941 to July 1942, the conclusion is made about the nature of the mobilization practice of the party and economic elite, culture and education workers Ugra and the ambiguity of the influence of mobilization along the party line on the life of the district in the war and post-war times.

Political dynasties, business, and poverty in the Philippines

Despite studies finding a link between political dynasty prevalence and poverty, empirical evidence in the Philippines shows that the relationship between dynastic concentration and underdevelopment is not the same across regions. We argue that an independent economic elite and high levels of economic activity, typically found in Luzon, affect the poverty and development impact of political dynasties. Local socioeconomic contexts shape the opportunities for predatory behavior among politicians and their relationships with economic elites. Using novel survey data on business-government linkages as well as an extensive dataset on local government leadership in the Philippines spanning 2004 to 2016, we find that political dynasties exacerbate poverty in the resource-rich non-Luzon provinces but not in Luzon where there is a competitive business environment.

Institutional Investors in the Green Transformation of Modern Financial Markets

A wide range of economic, social, environmental, demographic problems is characteristic of the modern world and is focused on achieving the goals of sustainable development, uniting the efforts of civil society, in which the main actors of socio-economic life are involved: political and economic elites, consumers and producers of the entire aggregate of material and intangible goods and services. The world community has come to the concept of sustainable development and the transition to a "green" economy, which combine the achievement of self-sustaining economic growth with the provision of social protection of the population and minimization of negative impact on the environment. Today, institutional investors play a system-forming role in the implementation of this triune development strategy. The purpose of the article is to identify the increasing significance of institutional investors in the “green” socially responsible transformation of the global and national financial markets in the implementation of the UN SDGs in a number of developed and developing economies. Objectives, findings and discussion of the study: consideration of the prerequisites for analyzing the role of institutional investors in achieving the UN SDGs; global investors’ certain initiatives assessment that have been proposed as a paradigm for socially responsible and infrastructure investment at the national and international level; determination the role of various green institutional investors (quasi-public sector, banks, sovereign welfare funds, with the special attention to the insurance companies’ and pension funds' role in green investments process) in the implementation of the green transformation of financial markets in some countries and regions of the world economy; identification the importance of the main investment channels of institutional investors in green infrastructure in the light of types of investment (direct, indirect mixed), kinds of investments (corporate, project, investment-target), general characteristics (description, advantages, scaling, profitability).

Beyond Freezing? The EU’s Targeted Sanctions against Russia's Political and Economic Elites, and their Implementation and Further Tightening in Germany

Beyond Freezing? The EU’s Targeted Sanctions against Russia's Political and Economic Elites, and their Implementation and Further Tightening in Germany

Redefining the Immigrant South: Indian and Pakistani Immigration to Houston during the Cold War by Uzma Quraishi

Reviewed by: Redefining the Immigrant South: Indian and Pakistani Immigration to Houston during the Cold War by Uzma Quraishi David Reimers Redefining the Immigrant South: Indian and Pakistani Immigration to Houston during the Cold War. By Uzma Quraishi. New Directions in Southern Studies. ( Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020. Pp. xviii, 315. Paper, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-4696-5519-2; cloth, $90.00, ISBN 978-1-4696-5518-5.) Uzma Quraishi has written a well-documented and engaging book. It was a pleasure to read. Her focus is on changing immigration to Houston, Texas, and she reminds us that this city belongs to both the South and the Sun Belt. The author relates the story of Houston's rapid growth since the 1950s, with its boom-and-bust economy. Quraishi touches on the large increase of the Latinx population, but her study centers on the much smaller populations of South Asians, in particular Indians and Pakistanis. She combines census data and other sources with in-depth oral histories. She studies the first generation of South Asians in Houston after 1965 and gives a picture that is not common among histories of immigration. Why the inclusion of the Cold War in the title? The migration of South Asians to America during the Cold War was part of the U.S. government's attempt to win allies as it promoted programs overseas. The main such program was established by the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act (1948), which attempted to present the best possible view of the United States. Embedded in this program was the educational exchange of Americans and South Asians. South Asians had been severely restricted by regular U.S. immigration channels, which limited immigrants to one hundred per year, until the Hart-Celler Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. When pushing for the 1965 act's passage, Lyndon B. Johnson administration officials suggested that only eight thousand Indians would come to the United States. But the educational exchanges had already opened a path to the United States that proved the 1965 predictions to be gross underestimates. Quraishi points out that some of the South Asian migrants had no initial intention of staying in the United States but decided to stay after favorable experiences with the educational opportunities in Houston. After the economic elite became established, immigrants arriving under family unification followed, thus expanding the community. It should be noted that she does emphasize the difficulties of the highly educated in India to find employment in their home country, which also encouraged them to find their futures in the United States. In any case, "For Indians and Pakistanis in the postwar era, the idea of migration to the United States emerged as an unintended consequence of U.S. State programs abroad" (p. 2). The second part of the book rests on thirty-eight intensive interviews with first-generation South Asian immigrants. Some readers might believe that this sample is too small, but this reviewer was not bothered by a limited group. Quraishi blends the interviews with data about the growth of the community and its presence in Houston. It is important to note that these immigrants were an elite group—as she puts it, middle-class, or "upper caste" (p. 23). What emerges from her interviews is the significance of education in her subjects' lives. It was education that made their success in Houston possible, and their faith in education for their children was the key to sustaining that success. [End Page 197] A major part of the story Quraishi tells is about the growing opportunities for these immigrants due to the expansion of Houston's suburbs. Their search for housing took them to older (but basically new) neighborhoods with quality public schools. As she demonstrates, these neighborhoods were usually white with some other Asians. Rather than challenging segregation, the resulting neighborhoods supported it, with Blacks and Mexicans largely confined to poorer neighborhoods. These South Asians were thus incorporated into a Jim Crow Houston shaped by class and racial hierarchies. David Reimers New York University Copyright © 2022 The Southern Historical Association

Parallel normative reality: The informal order of corruption and clientelism in Serbia

In contemporary Serbia, political and economic elite members systematically break the law with impunity. The paper explains this phenomenon by relying on theory and data from legal theory, sociology, and political science. The behaviour of officials in contemporary Serbia can be explained by analysing complex interactions between state law and informal norms that arise from informal institutions of clientelism and corruption. These norms form a parallel normative order (1) composed of mutual expectations regarding the behaviour of others and consequences for not complying with these expectations. (2) It is based on social and political powers that strengthen informal institutions and the normative order. (3) Norms of this order regulate the behaviour of actors, and (4) they are mutually harmonised, with the norm of loyalty central to the normative order. (5) The parallel normative system suspends state law for political and economic actors who respect informal rules while using mechanisms, rules, and resources of state law to sanction violations of informal norms that are considered crucial for maintaining the informal order. The relation between formal state law and the informal normative order is one of conflict, competition, and parasitisation. To elaborate on these findings, we explain the concepts of informal rules, institutions, and orders, along with an exposition and analysis of typologies of their relations. We then present and analyse empirical research data about corruption and clientelism in Serbia. Finally, based on the theoretical framework and the available data, we conclude that there is ample evidence that a parallel normative order is established and sustained in Serbia.

Qatari-Turkish and Saudi-Emirati alliance: Struggle for influence in Sudan

The article is devoted to the analysis of the confrontation between the Qatari-Turkish and Saudi Emirati blocs for influence in the Republic of Sudan. It was found out that in addition to the traditional struggle for the promotion of interests between Saudi Arabia and Iran in Sudan, a new player appeared in the geopolitical arena in the person of Qatar and Turkey. The Qatari-Turkish bloc was particularly active in strengthening its positions during the events of the "Arab Spring", provoking a reaction from Saudi Arabia and its ally, the United Arab Emirates. To weaken Turkish-Qatari-Sudanese relations, the Saudi-Emirati bloc provided financial and material assistance to Khartoum, which was in a difficult socio-economic situation as a result of the secession of South Sudan. However, the efforts of Saudi Arabia and the UAE did not lead to the desired result and forced them to resort to more decisive actions. As a result of sabotage by the military and economic elites supported by the Saudi-Emirati bloc in the spring of 2019, the thirty-year-old Sudanese regime of O. al-Bashir was overthrown. The military elite came to power, which managed to ease the socio-economic tension in the country. Financial and military assistance from Riyadh and Abu Dhabi played an important role in this. The fall of the regime of O. al-Bashir dealt a serious blow to the positions of Qatar and Turkey in Sudan, simultaneously strengthening the Saudi-Emirati positions. Despite this, Qatar and Turkey have not lost hope of restoring their influence in Sudan and continue to try to establish diplomatic, financial, military and cultural relations.

Relasi Elite, Sub-Elite, dan Masyarakat Desa dalam Mempertahankan Dinasti Keluarga Masra di Desa Gapurana Kabupaten Sumenep: Studi pada Rezim H. Andiwarto Tahun 2013-2019

This research focuses on the relation of elite H. Andiwarto with sub-elite and village community in maintaining Masra family dynasty for village head position. Masra family dynasty has run for a long time. For 150 years, Masra family descendants occupy the village head position. The survival of Masra family dynasty in the Gapurana Village Government is studied in the relation of H. Andiwarto, who is Masra descendant with sub-elite and village community to maintain Masra family descendant dynasty as a village head. This research used a qualitative method with descriptive research type. The elite theory proposed by Suzanne Keller was used to analyze the relation of elite, sub-elite, and the community. This theory has 4 (four) indicators: the governing elite, the ruling elite, the not ruling elite, and the community. Based on these indicators and the results of this research, the relation built by H. Andiwarto in maintaining Masra family dynasti consists of three relations: relation with the political elite, relation with economic elite, and relation with the social elite. The political elite’s relationship is vital in maintaining the Masra family descendant dynasty. In contrast, the relation between the economic elite and the social elite supports relations for keeping the legitimacy of the village community towards Masra descendants.

Construyendo la modernidad a través del deporte espectáculo: el Gran Premio de México, 1962-1970

The modernization process in Mexico had a multidimensional nature, not limited to the productive structure of the country. Leisure time was an important ideological bastion of the modernizing project promoted by the political and economic elites that emerged after the Mexican Revolution. The media, the arts and the sport as ashow became, during the second half of the twentieth century, important ideological scenarios where the narratives and identities that accompanied the formation of the modern Mexican nation were built. The article analyzes the Mexican Grand Prix of Formula 1 (1962-1970), a sporting spectacle that motivated the professionalization of Mexican motorsport. This event exposed the integration of political and economic elites as leaders of a country project that exhausted the Keynesian model. In turn, it was part of a series of sporting events that built a narrative and graphic identity which supported the construction of the Mexican nation. Thus, a socio-historical interpretation of this event is proposed, as part of a series of interrelated political and economic dynamics, in which key characters who embody values and contradictions typical of the historical moment are glimpsed.

Construyendo la modernidad a través del deporte espectáculo: el Gran Premio de México, 1962-1970

The modernization process in Mexico had a multidimensional nature, not limited to the productive structure of the country. Leisure time was an important ideological bastion of the modernizing project promoted by the political and economic elites that emerged after the Mexican Revolution. The media, the arts and the sport as ashow became, during the second half of the twentieth century, important ideological scenarios where the narratives and identities that accompanied the formation of the modern Mexican nation were built. The article analyzes the Mexican Grand Prix of Formula 1 (1962-1970), a sporting spectacle that motivated the professionalization of Mexican motorsport. This event exposed the integration of political and economic elites as leaders of a country project that exhausted the Keynesian model. In turn, it was part of a series of sporting events that built a narrative and graphic identity which supported the construction of the Mexican nation. Thus, a socio-historical interpretation of this event is proposed, as part of a series of interrelated political and economic dynamics, in which key characters who embody values and contradictions typical of the historical moment are glimpsed.

Economic and political determinants of the South African labour share, 1971–2019

This study examines the drivers of the steady decline in South Africa’s private sector labour share between 1971 and 2019. The focus on South Africa is instructive as its distributional contestation is bounded in a matrix of racial conflict. Crucial reforms on trade, finance and welfare were undertaken since 1994, but the study finds little evidence that the extension of the franchise promoted egalitarianism, since white economic elites invested in de facto political power. This study employs an Unrestricted Error Correction Model to estimate the drivers of the private sector labour share, and the findings suggest that globalisation, financialisation and public spending have decreased the labour share, while the effects of education have been positive but insufficient to halt the decline.

Global Education and the National Economic Elite: Methodological Foundations for Understanding the Problem

In line with the survival of mankind, the problems of the formation of the economic elite as the main subject of the revival of Ukraine are considered. The e-school is presented as an anti-human project of globalization, directed against the formation of the economic elite. Global education of the future is the main trend in the deliverance of a person’s personality through a complete disregard for spirituality and morality. The economic elite is a fundamental subject of the revival of the national economic system. It is necessary to radically change the worldview in the format of humanity for the formation of the national economic elite. The role of school and higher education in the process of countering dehumanization and the creation of a human future is revealed.

Do Business-Backed Think Tanks Represent Class Interests? The Co-evolution of Policy Learning and Economic Elites in the Canadian Knowledge Regime

Business-backed think tanks are often presented as representing the interests of economic elites. This article provides a more nuanced argument by using field theory to present the co-evolutionary dynamics between economic elites and other social forces. Three Canadian think tanks are examined to illustrate how different social forces can converge around business-backed think tanks, and how governance contexts and institutions shape these relationships. The paper also reflects on the kinds of learning these think tanks can enable depending on the kinds of actors that converge around them and on the forms of power that these actors represent.

The Legacy of Civil War Dynamics: State Building in Mexico, 1810–1910

This article studies the legacy of local dynamics of the War of Independence in local state building in Mexico. The analysis shows that municipalities where local militias were organized have a higher number of public servants and a larger budget per capita in the early 1900s than municipalities with an insurgent legacy, relative to those with no conflict. The results hold when restricting the sample to neighbors and controlling for geographic and economic factors. Historical evidence supports existing theories of intra-elite conflict while highlighting the role of local fiscal councils in municipalities with a legacy of local militias. Decentralization during and after the war strengthened local elites, while the negotiated war termination added a political-elite layer of insurgent leaders, born in conflict with colonial-era economic elites. These findings suggest that the local dynamics of civil warfare can have long-lasting effects on state building, boosting local state capacity in some regions and not in others.

Социальное положение и окружение легальной «левой» оппозиции в современной Российской Федерации (на материале политических партий)

The purpose of this study is to determine the social status and environment of the counter-elite groups of the legal left opposition, represented by such political parties as the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and A Just Russia. The study is based on the relationship between social reality and ideology. The latter is not only a cover or justification by certain social groups of their momentary interests (private ideology), but also a reflection of the social position they occupy (total ideology). Some elements of self-positioning of the left legal elite, its social position and environment, attitude to the socio-economic formation existing in modern Russia, as well as a number of other nuances of the social structure of the Russian Federation are determined. In particular, it was established that Party representatives are not associated with the business elite; the desire to increase the number of supporters of left-wing parties should explain the refusal to focus on any particular social class and the active use of national identity (primarily Russians) in their ideological self-positioning; the circle of social contacts of the leaders of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and “Fair Russia” is limited to groups of the bureaucratic and economic elite, as well as the sub-elite “expert” community (they do not enter into direct social contacts with other social groups); the social position of representatives of the two parties of the legal left opposition is generally similar.

Is WhatsApp and Telegram free of the elites: The 2018 General Elections in Malaysia

2018 was a particularly significant year for Malaysia, as citizens democratically dethroned a 61-year-old regime, Barisan Nasional (BN, the National Front), and replaced it with Pakatan Harapan (PH, the Alliance of Hope) without bloodshed. This article attempts to systematically analyze the evolution of new media from the 2008 election (taking place in the blogging era, which contributed to the “electoral tsunami” in Malaysia that year) to 2018, which saw the rise of encrypted messaging services such as WhatsApp, a formidable point for the dissemination and consumption of political news in Malaysia. Methodologically, the normative method of the shared values theory was adopted to better explain how new media is currently used to shape the political ideas of ordinary Malaysians. The findings suggest that there is a clear attempt by political leaders to coopt opinion leaders at various levels, particularly religious leaders, academicians, think tanks and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), with the intention of influencing and shaping the political leanings of those who are less interested in politics, using a centralized agenda-setting mechanism. The findings also suggest that opinion leaders were purposely selected according to their higher social capital value and social authority, and evidence from the study suggests that instant messaging services are not totally free from the influence of political and economic elites. Keywords: Collective identity, Malaysian politics, new media, political mobilizations

Regulating sustainable minerals in electronics supply chains: local power struggles and the ‘hidden costs’ of global tin supply chain governance

Voluntary supply chain regulation has proliferated in recent decades in response to concerns about the social and environmental impacts of global production and trade. Yet the capacity of supply chain regulation to influence production practices on the ground has been persistently questioned. Through empirical analysis of transnational regulatory interventions in the Indonesian tin sector—centered on a multi-stakeholder Tin Working Group established by prominent global electronics brands—this paper explores the challenges and limits of voluntary supply chain governance as it interacts with an entrenched ‘extractive settlement’ in Indonesia’s major tin producing islands of Bangka and Belitung. Although the Tin Working Group has introduced localized initiatives to tackle issues such as worker safety and improved land rehabilitation, it has also contributed in diffuse and largely unintended ways to consolidating the power of political and economic elites who benefit from centralized control over resource extraction. In this sense, supply chain governance has generated ‘hidden costs’ through unintended effects on power struggles between competing social groups at national and sub-national levels—generating marginal benefits for ameliorating specific regulatory ‘problems’, while consolidating and reproducing barriers to deeper transitions towards inclusive or sustainable regimes of extractive governance.