Transition elites: catalysts of social innovation or rent-seekers (reproduction/circulation thesis reconsidered)
Transition elites: catalysts of social innovation or rent-seekers (reproduction/circulation thesis reconsidered)

Summary/Abstract: Proceeding from a synthetic overview of findings related to elite research in almost all the countries in Eastern and Central Europe, the authors try to discern the patterns of elite reproduction and /or circulation. They are especially interested in the impact of these patterns on the type and quality of democracy as well as on socio-economic modernisation. Taking Slovenia as a case study, they begin with an analysis of the multifaceted phenomenon of retention elite and draw attention to the importance of the differentiation of (political) elite and an emergent balance between dominant (retention) and new elite. As far as future process of elite formation is concerned, they argue – also polemically with authors such as Higley – that at least in the case of small social (national) systems, the model of cognitive oriented elite (or elite with high learning capacity) is more functional than the model of (pure) power and acquisitive elite.

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