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Shadow Elite: HOW THE WORLD'S NEW POWER BROKERS UNDERMINE DEMOCRACY, GOVERNMENT,AND THE FREE MARKET Paperback – April 5, 2011

4.4 out of 5 stars 58

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It can feel like we're swimming in a sea of corruption. It's unclear who exactly is in charge and what role they play. The same influential people seem to reappear time after time in different professional guises, pressing their own agendas in one venue after another. According to award-winning public policy scholar and anthropologist Janine Wedel, these are the powerful "shadow elite," the main players in a vexing new system of power and influence.

In this groundbreaking book, Wedel charts how this shadow elite, loyal only to their own, challenge both governments'; rules of accountability and business codes of competition to accomplish their own goals. From the Harvard economists who helped privatize post-Soviet Russia and the neoconservatives who have helped privatize American foreign policy (culminating with the debacle that is Iraq) to the many private players who daily make public decisions without public input, these manipulators both grace the front pages and operate behind the scenes. Wherever they maneuver, they flout once-sacrosanct boundaries between state and private.

Profoundly original,
Shadow Elite gives us the tools we need to recognize these powerful yet elusive players and comprehend the new system. Nothing less than our ability for self-government and our freedom are at stake.

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About the Author

Janine R. Wedel is a Professor in the School of Public Policy at George Mason University and a Fellow at the New America Foundation. Her previous books include Collision and Collusion. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; Reprint edition (April 5, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 303 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0465022014
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0465022014
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 13 years and up
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 11 and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.1 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.69 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 58

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4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
58 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2009
Economists still don't know how the great recession could happen. Political scientists seem satisfied to analyze polls and use them to determine political strategies. Military leaders appear to be a political and purchasing arm of government that is unable to complete a military objective in today's environment. Can anyone untangle the complexity of how things really work and who is calling the shots? Janine R Wedel makes a strong case that it takes an Anthropologist - a scholar who studies people and cultures and networks - to see what is really going on.

In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Wedel has identified what she calls "flex networks" of individuals who share a common ideology and, by playing an array of related and interwoven roles, work together to manipulate the policies and actions of governments, corporations, and NGOs. She labels these individuals "flexians" for the way they use multiple simultaneous and sequential roles to pursue the goals of their flex net, often to the detriment of the companies and governments they represent or advise.

Dr. Wedel presents her thesis and then illustrates it using three detailed examples of flex nets, the individuals involved, and the global effects of their actions over time. She stresses that these are not conspiracies and often their actions are legal or at least not provably illegal.

The first example is a flex net operating in Poland and Eastern Europe after the fall of the communists in Poland. Another chapter describes the "Harvard-Chubais" flex net that oversaw and bungled the privatization efforts in Russia in the early 90's. The third flex net she describes is the "Neocon core" consisting of individuals centered around Richard Perle, and how their activities, over a 30 year period, culminated most recently in helping to lead the USA into the Iraq war based on their preemptive war ideology and a campaign of manufactured disinformation.

In all these cases, these flex nets, or "Shadow Elite," significantly determine policy and action at global levels and do so beyond the control, oversight, or even recognition of any national or international authority.

Dr. Wedel does not claim to have answers to all the questions mentioned at the start of this review or even for the cases she presents. In fact, she makes a point of saying that her goal is to simply describe the reality of what is happening. It is up to us to understand this new insight and to determine if the results of this new form of organizing are compatible with the type of government, economy, and culture we want. If not, and that is likely the case, it will take a new type of recognition, oversight, and control to change the situation.

Gary Lyndaker, Gravois Mills, Mo
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Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2010
This is a worrisome book. It is unusual among current events books in that it is written by an anthropologist; Wedel has been able to do field work in the corridors of power. (Many of us anthros want to "study up" but never get a chance.) What she found, by anthropological interviewing, goes deeper than what journalists usually find. She worked primarily in eastern Europe, watching it transition from communism to capitalism (or something). She identified major similarities with the United States--theoretically so different.
She identifies a whole new universe of what she calls "flex" people and "flexnets"--the behind-the-scenes operators who increasingly are making the real decisions in the world, in their capacities as CEO's, consultants, special advisors, and so on. They drift from government to education to the private sector to think-tanks, often failing everywhere but sliding into a new and prestigious job. Larry Summers is the type: failed at the World Bank, failed at running Harvard (and not because of one remark, either), did a less-than-brilliant job in government, and yet is still powerful. The neoconservatives have similar records. So do the CEO's of the giant corporations, who are getting away with every imaginable crime--not only without being called to account, but not even being docked their 8-figure bonuses. So do countless other political and business operatives, left-wing, right-wing and center.
The real problem here is that these people are utterly unaccountable. They are not democratically elected. They are not dependent on the success of their endeavors. In business, they are CEO's, not bosses; old-fashioned bosses went down with their firms, but CEO's just go on to the next job. As TIME magazine reports the Goldman Sachs administrators saying, "I'll be gone, you'll be gone." In government, the same people are special advisors and consultants, not only unelected and unaccountable, but often serving both Democrats and Republicans indifferently. They can, and do, fail over and over again, taking whole countries down with them, and yet go right on. This is the real reason for the financial meltdown of 2008 and for its persistence today.
Only four stars, though, because this is a short (and somewhat rapidly written, occasionally repetitious) book. It could have gone much deeper into the history--in the United States, back to the 1870s and 1880s, when the country was run, de facto, by the robber barons (Daniel Drew, Jay Gould, the Big Four, and the rest of that gang). Shadow elites and flexnets are not new; what is new is their extreme power. This has resulted from downsizing government, and also from the explosive increase in subsidies, procurement, and other government support for firms. BP can get away with destroying the US south because it is not really a private firm; it is a British parastatal with American ties as well. ExxonMobil is essentially a parastatal also. From Halliburton to Monsanto to Goldman Sachs, the big firms do what they please and duly receive taxpayer support, bailouts, and so on, while avoiding oversight or regulation.
This is not "capitalism" and not really "socialism" either. It's closest (scarily) to Mussolini's original version of fascism: Government supports the big private firms and cracks down on anyone who doesn't like it. Eventually government and business fuse.
We are hearing no opposition to this from the right wing--indeed, they support it all, in spite of their insincere condemnations of "big government." The left (if there can be said to be a left today) is still locked in the illusion that we have "capitalism" and "free enterprise" and "neoliberalism." No, we don't. We have a shadow elite, a gang of non-accountable political operators who are devoted solely to keeping themselves on top, as the near-invisible powers behind the thrones and presidential chairs.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Debra
5.0 out of 5 stars On time and as described.
Reviewed in Canada on January 22, 2020
Arrived in great condition.
PIERPIER
4.0 out of 5 stars da leggere
Reviewed in Italy on March 18, 2016
e' un libro interessante che svela come in varie occasioni e parti del mondo ci siano elite che assumono il comando con responsabilità pubbliche e gestione di aspetti delicati che sono meno controllabili dei funzionari pubblici o dei politici.A volte un po ripetitivo e ovviamente concentrato sugli USA comunque molto istruttivo
Luc REYNAERT
5.0 out of 5 stars A murky ghost government
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 29, 2010
With truly in depth investigations (the notes are excellent), Janine Wedel discovered disturbing facts about how the US is actually governed. The loud call for a `small government' is for her pure rhetoric. The de facto US government is in fact growing rapidly, albeit in a very peculiar manner.
The real story behind the `shouting façade' is the `redesigning of government', its privatization.

Actually, three-quarters of the work of the federal government (measured in terms of jobs) is contracted out (a multi-billion dollar business). This outsourcing of governmental tasks created a new power system, a kind of parallel (shadow) government.
This parallel power base consists of a small set of players (the author is naming names) who are acting inside or outside the government and who are all the time changing jobs between the government itself, private companies, consulting firms, NGOs or think tanks. They always follow their own agenda or the orders of their masters.

Result
Hiding behind their `grand narratives of democracy and freedom', those who forced the merging of State and private businesses, created less competitive markets and less accountable governmental services. The fusion even eroded national sovereignty. `Ambiguous institutional arrangements are making it difficult to establish where authority resides.'
Moreover, the government is `emasculated' because the eventually gathered information stays in private hands, which gives contractors an edge over government overseers.

Russia
J. R. Wedel analyzed superbly the privatization of Russian State assets under B. Yeltsin.
A small group of insiders from Harvard and from PM A. Chubais's office sold a major chunk of State assets for token sums to seven (!) preselected bank chiefs.
Free marketeers created a new authoritarian State.

The author is not really optimistic that all the players `who operate largely above public input, knowledge and visibility' can be reined in.

This superbly researched book with an excellent index is a must read for all true democrats and for all those who want to understand the world we live in.
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recluse
3.0 out of 5 stars truthinessとは、なんだろう?
Reviewed in Japan on November 6, 2011
冷戦前後の米ロ関係( Collision and Collusion: The Strange Case of Western Aid to Eastern Europe )、そしてポーランドのケーススタディ、そしてイラク戦争へのアメリカの参戦プロセスから著者が見出したのは、不思議な一群の人々でした。彼らは、官と民のブランドを都合よく使い分け、政府の援助資金を使いながら、被援助国の政治プロセスにさまざまな代理人を使いながら浸透し、そしてシンクタンクやNGOの仮面を持つ人々を世論対策上の道具として使いながら、様々な目的の達成を狙いとしていました。
その目的とは、官と民の境界線に位置するものであり、政治的な目的(証券取引所の創設、契約関係の法律の整備、イスラエルへの支持など)だけではなく、私的な(もちろんその中にはインサイダーまがいの経済的な利害)ものも含まれます。案外一番大きな目的は、自分たちの「普遍的」な流儀を外に広めたいという個々人の「宣教師」的な熱情ものだったのかもしれません。
著者はこれらの人々をflexianそしてこの政官財文にまたがる仕組みをflexnetと命名しています。この背後には、新自由主義のもとでの統治という概念と実践の再設計、冷戦の終結、新しい情報通信技術の発展、そして「truthiness」という様式への屈服、があるというのが著者の結論です。結果として損なわれるのが国民国家と議会を前提とする民主主義なのです。
これは特殊アメリカ的な現象ではありませんね。規制緩和や金融をめぐって作られた政府のさまざまなタスクフォース、そして現行のTPPをめぐる動きにも如実に見受けられるものです。投資銀行業務なんてまさにこの政と官と民の境界で合法的な仮面をかぶりながらの、綱渡りそのものですからね。いわれてみりゃ、Financial Timesも、これらのさまざまなflexnetの宣伝の掲示板みたいなもんですわ。
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