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Janine R. Wedel
Today many citizens feel ever-further removed from the decisions that affect them. Why do the same people reappear, wearing different hats but always pressing their agendas, in one venue of influence after another? In Shadow Elite, anthropologist Janine Wedel charts, for the first time, the new system of power and influence that arose with the 21st century. At its apex are players and networks loyal only to their own. They relax both government rules of accountability and business codes of competition, undermining government, free markets, and democracy itself.
The drive to privatize and deregulate, the proliferation of complex technologies, and even "truthiness," have created an environment for players who redefine themselves as state or private depending on the opportunities. From the manipulators who merged state and private power in the ruins of the Soviet empire to those playing at the margins of contracting out and privatizing foreign policy in the United States, Shadow Elite explains the transformation we previously lacked the concepts to understand. Profoundly original, it speaks to theories of democracy, international relations, and the state, and will no doubt spark controversy.
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