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Elite Integration in the United States and Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

John Higley  and
Gwen Moore
John Higley
Affiliation:
Australian National University
Gwen Moore
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Albany
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Abstract

Taking its point of departure in the elitist paradigm and the much-discussed relationship between elite integration and stable democratic political systems, this article offers a typology of fragmented and integrated national elites and investigates the structure of the “consensually integrated” elite type. It is hypothesized that “consensually integrated” elites have largely similar structures consisting of personal interaction networks which are more inclusive and less class-based, and which contain more extensive and centralized connections among all major elite groups, than the plural elite, power elite or ruling class models of elite structure separately depict. Support for these hypotheses is found in a comparison of the network structures of two consensually integrated national elites, the American and Australian, as these structures are revealed by issue-based sociometric data taken from closely comparable elite samples and studies in the two countries.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 75 , Issue 3 , September 1981 , pp. 581 - 597
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1981

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