Political Elites in the Transatlantic Crisis [Hardcover]

Beliefs held by US and European elites about unregulated markets and a currency union without fiscal union led to a transatlantic crisis unmatched in severity since the Great Depression. Leading scholars of elites analyze how elites have responded to the crisis, are altered by it and what this 'hour of elites' means for democracy.1. Introduction: The Transatlantic Crisis; Heinrich Best and John Higley 2. Structure and Agency: Lessons from Pareto on the Study of Elites, Democracy and Crisis; Joseph V. Femia 3. Is 'Europe' the Lesser Evil? Limits of Elite Crisis Resolution in a Limitless Crisis; Heinrich Best 4. Facing the Crisis: The European Elite System's Changing; Geometry; Maurizio Cotta 5. Central European Elites in the Crisis; Pavol Fri?, Gy?rgy Lengyel, Jan Pakulski and So?a Szomolanyi 6. British Elite De-Coupling from Classes Amid Crisis and Globalization; David Lane 7. Why Can't US Business Elites be Moderate Keynesians? The Issue is Power, not Economics; G. William Domhoff 8. Elite Compromise, Crisis and Democracy: The US, Norway and Italy Compared; Fredrik Engelstad 9. When Political and Financial Elites Clash: Narratives of Blame, Power and Legitimacy; Alasdair Marshall 10. The Hour of Elites: Conclusions; Heinrich Best and John Higley

'A masterful portrait of how non-elected (and elected) elites have been pivotal actors in the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath, bringing together a group of excellent analyses by leading scholars of the field.'

Antonio Costa Pinto, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal

While economists rushed to publish their explanations for the causes of the 2008 financial crisis, little has been written about its impact on political systems. This collection of essays by a distinguished panel of authors shows how elites struggled to shore up the existing system of Euro-Atlantic institutions. Globalization has its limits, and national political elites still have a rlC$