Shadow Elite: The New Agents of Power and Influence Who are Undermining Government, Free Enterprise, and Democracy - Hardcover

Wedel, Janine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465091067 ISBN 13: 9780465091065

Publisher: Basic, 2010

Synopsis

This is a skeleton key to understanding today's biggest government and business scandals, across a wide range of seemingly unconnected fields. Corruption is not static. It evolves to take advantage of new situations, new technologies, and new institutions. Today many citizens of democratic countries feel that corruption is out of control but, at the same time, almost impossible to pinpoint and describe. The familiar forms of influence peddling and conflict of interest have been superseded by new means of wielding power that cut across government, corporate, nonprofit and even international boundaries. Who is really in charge, and why do the same people seem to reappear, constantly wearing different hats but always pressing a suspect agenda, in one influential venue after another? Who are the shadow elite, and why are they so effective? In "Shadow Elite", anthropologist Janine Wedel provides the skeleton key to understanding the new corruption and how it works. The key to understanding individual players' careers, she says, is not to look at the individuals. Many of the best players at the new game of corruption belong to a new species of social organization, which Wedel terms 'sovereign cliques', that is highly adapted to operating in, blurring and even erasing the boundaries between government, private and nonprofit organizations. Its members are ultimately answerable only to each other, they constantly promote each other's interests, and yet they wield tremendous influence.

About this title

Review:

Publishers Weekly, starred review, December 7, 2009 "This fascinating, authoritative wake-up call should satisfy any American who wants a handle on the republic's most successful agents of corruption." Financial Times, January 3, 2010 "A clarion call against some insidious threats to a healthy democracy." Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post, January 6, 2010 ..".a gripping, disquieting book that exposes and explains why it's been so hard to bring about any real change in our country. " BuzzFlash, November 25, 2009 " What makes Wedel's book so valuable is that she doesn't indulge in conspiracy theories that can't be proven; she provides the facts and describes how this informal group of elitists is fluid in moving among the powerful institutions that control public policy, including government." James K. Galbraith, Author of The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too "Of huge value. With an eye that sweeps from Poland and Russia to Cambridge and Washington, Janine Wedel has reinvented the study of public administration for an era of blurred roles and secret networks. Shadow Elite is a must-read for all who care about the future of government--even the possibility of decent government--in the age of flexians and truthiness." Peter Bergen, Author ofHoly War, Inc. and The Osama bin Laden I Know "Janine Wedel has written a thought-provoking and interesting book that explores the rise of powerful, informal networks that often drive what governments actually do. Her account of the 1990s "reformers" in Russia and their allies in the United States, as well as her analysis of the interlocking relationships and effects on history of the American neoconservatives are especially persuasive." Charles Lewis, Bestselling author and founder of the Center for Public Integrity "Shadow Elite is a powerful, searing work about how, over time, public and private have become blurred--three out of four people doing the work of the federal government today are actually private contractors. Self-dealing and corruption have become endemic, with those wielding political influence and getting rich at our expense becoming less and less accountable. With this book, Janine Wedel has provided a magnificent public service." "Publishers Weekly, starred review," December 7, 2009 "This fascinating, authoritative wake-up call should satisfy any American who wants a handle on the republic's most successful agents of corruption." "Financial Times," January 3, 2010 "A clarion call against some insidious threats to a healthy democracy." Arianna Huffington, "The Huffington Post," January 6, 2010 ..".a gripping, disquieting book that exposes and explains why it's been so hard to bring about any real change in our country. " "BuzzFlash," November 25, 2009 " What makes Wedel's book so valuable is that she doesn't indulge in conspiracy theories that can't be proven; she provides the facts and describes how this informal group of elitists is fluid in moving among the powerful institutions that control public policy, including government." James K. Galbraith, Author of "The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too" "Of huge value. With an eye that sweeps from Poland and Russia to Cambridge and Washington, Janine Wedel has reinvented the study of public administration for an era of blurred roles and secret networks. "Shadow Elite" is a must-read for all who care about the future of government--even the possibility of decent government--in the age of flexians and truthiness." Peter Bergen, Author of"Holy War, Inc. and The Osama bin Laden I Know" "Janine Wedel has written a thought-provoking and interesting book that explores the rise of powerful, informal networks that often drive what governments actually do. Her account of the 1990s "reformers" in Russia and their allies in the United States, as well as her analysis of the interlocking relationships and effects on history of the American neoconservatives are especially persuasive." Charles Lewis, Bestselling author and founder of the Center for Public Integrity ""Shadow Elite" is a powerful, searing work about how, over time, public and priva

About the Author:

Trained in anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley, Janine R. Wedel is a Professor in the School of Public Policy at George Mason University. She is a former Fulbright Fellow and the author of dozens of research articles as well as three previous books: The Private Poland (1986), The Unplanned Society (1992), and Collision and Collusion (2001). The last was awarded the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order by the University of Louisville. She lives in Washington, D.C.

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0465091067
• ISBN 13: 9780465091065
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304