Throughout the 20th century, Jews have been greatly over-represented in western nations among intellectual elites, in the universities, and among the higher socio-economic classes. The two principal theories that have been advanced to explain this are that Jews have high intelligence and, alternatively, that they have cultural values that promote success. We review the evidence and present new ...

We develop a model of oligarchy subject to elite competition. Even when all members of the elite share an economic interest in labor repression, competition for control of the state can drive a wedge between the incentives of old and new elites. Thus ‘the iron law of oligarchy’–that all elite members share an overriding interest in repressive institutions–can be bent in various ways. New elites...

Does power sharing between competing elites result in franchise extension to non-elites? In this paper, we argue that competing, risk-averse elites will enfranchise non-elites as insurance against future, uncertain imbalances in relative bargaining power. We show that negligibly small changes in the bargaining power of non-elites, conditional on enfranchisment, via coalition formation, constrai...

This paper evaluates the hypothesis that the judicialization of medicine for mucopolysaccharidosis in Brazil is an action promoted by economic elites. Previous studies upholding the thesis of judicialization by elites in the case of other types of medication that are more costly for the Unified Health Service are discussed. An analysis of all 196 processes containing information about judicial ...

Explanations of the emergence of regional autonomy movements political organizations seeking to express sub-state affinities and interests often highlight cultural differences and economic incentives as important reasons driving regional elites and local politicians to form such organization and explain the support regional autonomy movements receive. In this paper I employ a specialized agent-...

When do labor laws protect workers from workplace risks, and when do they serve to institute or insulate the privilege of particular political and economic actors? This paper argues that Latin American labor laws are highly politicized, and have been since their early origins. In the early decades of the twentieth century, the first labor codes were formulated to favor skilled, unionized labor ...

In the 1990s FIAT Auto embarked on an ambitious globalization project (Project 178). FIAT Auto's main aim was to enter new markets in emerging economies, although globalization also opened up opportunities for cost-reduction through global sourcing. The countries chosen were ones in which it was anticipated that neo-liberal programmes of economic reform advocated by international organizations,...

© 201 0002-9 Organizing collective action to secure support from local communities provides a source of power for elites to protect their interests, but community structures constrain the ability of elites to use this power. Elites’ power is not static or self-perpetuating but changing and dynamic. There are situations in which elites are forced into movementlike struggles to mobilize support f...

Abstract What explains the emergence and persistence of institutions aimed at preventing any ruling group from using state apparatus to advance particularistic interests? To answer this recurring question, a burgeoning literature examines establishment power-sharing in societies divided by ethnic or religious cleavages. Going beyond existing scholarly work focused on these specific settings, we...