Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making | 
 enlarge | Author: David Rothkopf
Creator: Patrick Lawlor
Publisher: Tantor Media
Category: Book
List Price: $29.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 1773374
Format: Audiobook, Cd
Media: MP3 CD
Edition: MP3 Una
Number Of Items: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 1400156025
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.5209045
EAN: 9781400156023
ASIN: 1400156025
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
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Product Description
Superclass draws back the curtain on a privileged society that most of us know little about, even though it profoundly affects our everyday lives. It is the first in-depth examination of the connections between the global communities of leaders who are at the helm of every major enterprise on the planet and control its greatest wealth. And it is an unprecedented examination of the trends within the superclass, which are likely to alter our politics, our institutions, and the shape of the world in which we live.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 bunch of unorganized words August 28, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I borrowed this book from a public library. Otherwise, I would be regret ever buying this book. The author must be a powerful person as I can't see how the publisher would publish such a book with lot of words, with little meat. The flow of thoughts are poorly organized. The only take I have from this book is Davos is a cool place to be when all the big names are in town.
 Globalization - yes- but 'nationalism' now more so August 19, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The world is ruled by an elite class , the superclass consisting in roughly six- thousand people, overwhelmingly male. This Superclass includes not only the Big Business elite, but heads of State, and even religious leaders like the Pope, and crime - bosses. These people, the one in a million who influence many millions are part of a global structure in which they trade and deal with each other.
They are the few who influence the many.
Rothkopf takes a tour around the world with them, speaks privately and interviews many. He goes to their famous meeting grounds, perhaps most famously, Davos and learns how they operate with global and not national concerns in mine.
In the course of the exploration Rothkopf provides a great deal of information, and insight. He provides portraits of figures most of us have never heard anything about, no matter how powerful they be.
All this is fine, but my sense is the central thesis is somewhat exaggerated and mistaken. Another world- affairs analyst Fred Kagan has recently written about how old national rivalries are as alive as ever, how competition between states still rules the world. The picture of these Davos people does not exactly expunge that of the Chinese now staging their grand show in Beijing. Old- style nationalism and national pride is helping drive them to leadership in the world. There are forces at work in history beyond those which Rothkopf attributes as being in the hands of elite.
One can learn much from this book, but it only tells a small part of the whole story of how the world moves and decides.
Tedious Fluff August 12, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I read this book hoping for some insight into the dynamics of the global power divide, and what those at the top of the power pile are doing to exacerbate the have/have not split or (possibly) ameliorate certain aspects of it. That's not what I got. Instead, I plodded through 300+ vapid pages that told me exactly two things: the modern aristocracy enjoy hanging around with people like themselves, and so does the author of the book.
Mr. Rothkopf makes a couple of mild points that are accurate enough, as when he points to 'conspicuous conscience' (think the Gates Foundation) as a modern manifestation of the more familiar term 'conspicuous consumption,' and when he notes--almost nervously, I thought--that maybe the rich/poor divide wouldn't be getting worse in so many places today if this super-powerful bunch of people *really* wanted to try doing something effective about the structural reasons for global poverty. But such criticisms are rare and hold no sting. Mr. Rothkopf is a cheerleader for markets, markets, markets, at one point even ballyhooing the vigorous international arms trade; in his strange and scary world, "the benefits cascade outward" from rising arms sales in southeast Asia. Really?
And, thank you anyway, Mr. Rothkopf, but it is possible to oppose globalization in its current form without being some sort of xenophobic freak or knuckle-dragging troglodyte. That straw man won't stand.
Reading this book is a huge waste of time. If you haven't picked it up already, substitute Naomi Klein's _Shock Doctrine_ for this self-indulgent silliness; you'll be glad you did.
 bordering on fraudulent August 5, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
well, not this book actually, but a related book by Parag Khanna titled The Second World.
Some of the various, and numerous, factual errors that riddle the book are relatively trivial, but suggest serious sloppiness and disregard for getting facts right. For example, Yugoslavia was not part of Warsaw pact, as Khanna states. Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov was appointed to office in 1992 by Boris Yeltsin, and not by Vladimir Putin. Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia and Albania are not all smaller by population than Manhattan, and the death toll from the civil wars in former Yugoslavia was not greater than half a million. Other obviously wrong assertions seem to be made up simply to provide lurid background color to Khanna's travelogue: the former KGB headquarters in Moscow has not been turned into "a high-class disco," expensive Moscow malls do not charge entrance fees, and police road checkpoints in Uzbekistan do not stop and check all vehicles. And other gross misstatements of fact display a simple complete lack of understanding the history and culture of the countries of which he writes: the (Orthodox) Uspenky cave monastery in Crimea is not representative of Ukraine's "proud Catholic heritage," Zoran Djindjic was not the first democratically elected leader since World War II in former Yugoslavia , and in the 1980s Yugoslav republics like Bosnia and Macedonia were not richer than Spain. Many of Khanna's wildly wrong claims sound like local myths that he has taken at face value. I can easily imagine some misguided elderly Belgrade resident waxing nostalgically for the days "when every one of our republics was richer than Spain!"
Yet more of Khanna's assertions are not merely factually wrong, but far exceed the ludicrous. In the fast paced and dangerous Russian business world, "one is safe only in the sauna, where everyone is naked and no weapons are allowed." It was news to me to learn from Khanna that every winter "waves" of Russians and "thousands of Ukrainians" freeze to death in "crumbling heatless apartment blocks." And he employs gross mischaracterizations of fact to buttress his claims. For example, according to Khanna, in 2006 Greek GDP increased 25% when the government started to account for prostitution and cigarette smuggling in its figures. In fact, the government said it would include all unreported economic activity, mostly in construction and trade, but including a "small" amount for illegal activities such as smuggling. And this is merely a sampling of patently ridiculous claims.
And for a "foreign policy whiz-kid," Khanna makes numerous and serious analytical mistakes, showing a clear misunderstanding of economics, international institutions, and international relations. The unhedged statement, "Russia's diplomatic position is purely residual," will surely surprise diplomats from Brussels to Tokyo. Noting that Gazprom's market capitalization is $300 billion leads Khanna to the conclusion that Gazprom is one third of the Russian economy, confusing market capitalization with GDP. And his bald assertion that "[n]one of Central Asian legal systems have evolved beyond Kakfaaesque" is belied by the numerous successful legislative accomplishments of Kazakhstan and its quite sophisticated legal code, for example.
But the worst moments of Khanna's book are when he quotes conversations that seem of such dubious authenticity as to make me believe they may be fabricated, or at best the result of very selective reporting, only relating those comments that fit within his pre-existing views. "'Our pride has suffered'" explains a "Moscow intellectual over a narrow glass of [of course] ice-chilled vodka, `but this only drives our nationalism further.'" In Kiev, the locals "give lifts to strangers for a token fare." Why? "We suffered enough together, so we still trust each other." There are just too many such (anonymous) quotations that fail to ring true to trust in the author's integrity. And he also reports statements by national leaders as if they were heard in personal conversation, yet in a curiously indirect fashion that suggests otherwise.
A Different Slice of The Globalization Debate July 31, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is an attempt to present a picture of people at the top of their fields with high-profile international roles (the global elite), and to assess their collective impact on the course of world events and the behavior and policy choices of governments.
The book has many strengths. One is the close personal experience the author has from having worked in the circles he writes about. While this sometimes sounds too much like a vicarious trip around the planet to elite dinner parties, it does give the author practical understanding of who these people are, what they do and how they interact with government, all of which is of benefit to the reader.
Another strength is the author's use of some elite theorists of the past, particularly C Wright Mills, though he does not really develop an analytical framework along these lines, which is unfortunate. The book might have benefitted from the thought of other elite theorists, such as Mosca and Pareto, though he mentions Pareto in another context. While the use of elite theory provides a nice intellectual framework, it is underdeveloped and, as a result, seems directionless.
For example, the author notes variously how elites circulate in and out off various positions at the top (business, government, the arts, etc.), suggesting Mills' idea of interlocking directorates. But what is his ultimate evaluation of this? In Mills, the idea implied a door closed to outsiders, which meant these elites were unresponsive to democratic mechanisms. If true, then democracy is but window dressing. Does the author believe this or not? Sometimes it seems he does and sometimes it seems he doesn't.
Related to this is the circulation of elites from the lower orders up to the elite and the opposite movement of older elites downward. How does this work with the global elite? Is it a process of meritocratic and competitive advancement or is it a process of caste, privilege, etc., all supported by various networks? The author seems to imply both in different places without synthesizing his analysis into a cogent whole. He does speak at length about the rise and fall of elites, but sometimes we think that a person's attendance at an elite university offers social networking opportunities that promote advancement, while, at other times, we think the elite in question are driven, skilled and smart and that's how they got there. It's likely a combination of the two, but why? What are the recruitment mechanisms (aside from elite universities)? What are the relevant correlates of elite circulation or lack thereof? This is the type of circulation of elites that Mosca and Parerto discussed, but the author makes no use of them here. It would also be a great opportunity for the author to use the data he seems to have on the 6,000 persons identified as being in the global elite. There is a treasure trove of testable hypotheses in elite literature.
The author does attempt to synthesize the characteristics of this superclass (e.g., he tells us where most went to school and where most originate from), but I'd liked to have seen a more systematic analysis of this group. It's possible, however, that the group of 6,000 is so diverse that they are really not a single group. It's easy to see top business and government elites as being in the same overall group, but how does Sting come into play here? He wants a voice on African development, but will Sting ever circulate out of music into the World Bank? Would Sting's skills translate into worthwhile economic and financial analysis? Maybe Sting and similar characters are in a different tier of the global elite.
Last, the book attempts to address the problems that governments face in dealing with this class of people. It seems that government policies that might be adverse to the interests of the global elite, even if beneficial to the public at large, will cause the elite to make financial decisions that will harm a society (such as moving billions of dollars around the globe in a short order of time). This forces governments to dance to the tune of the elite to keep them happy, but prevents them from pursuing policies that may be necessary for their publics. This is one of the conundrums of globalization and the author's discussion of this issue is well worth reading.
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