Essays
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Elites - Chu, Johan S. G.
By definition, individual elite actors have a disproportionately high level of resources at their disposal with which to influence society. The question is whether such elites are able to act in a unified and effective manner. During the twentieth century, scholars discovered mechanisms that led to elite cohesion and unified political action. In the early twenty‐first century, these mechanisms have ceased to function. Elite researchers are thus faced with the challenge of identifying alternative mechanisms capable of fostering elite influence. In addition to cohesion, mechanisms of elite institutional influence and durable dominance are promising areas for study. Against the current backdrop of popular interest in elites and the many theoretical avenues opened up by researchers doing related work in fields such as economics, organizational theory, business, and psychology, the twenty‐first century promises to be an important period for elite scholarship. -
Stability and Change in Corporate Governance - Davis, Gerald F.
Corporate governance describes the process that allocates power and resources within organizations and the societal institutions that shape how they look, how they make decisions, and how the proceeds from their activities are divided. Research and theory traditionally focused on the institutions that overcome the separation of ownership and control created by dispersed shareholdings. Critics noted that this problem was distinctively American, and that corporate governance is shaped by history, culture, and power. We describe several domains for productive future research that is comparative, historical, and attentive to power dynamics.