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 enlarge | Author: David Rothkopf
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
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New (37) Used (14) Collectible (3) from $13.77
Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 11632
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.5
ISBN: 0374272107
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.5209045
EAN: 9780374272104
ASIN: 0374272107
Publication Date: March 18, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 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.
 Embarrassing July 9, 2008
7 out of 11 found this review helpful
David Rothkopf, an ex-director of Kissinger Associates, has written a revealing book. He notes that a tiny group of about 6,000 people has vastly more power than any other group on the planet, and that the richest 1,000 have more than twice the wealth of the poorest 2.5 billion.
This class comprises mostly top businessmen, mainly from the USA and the EU. Concentration of capital leads to fewer and richer CEOs. Giant firms, banks and private equity companies are this class's base. It advances its interests through self-regulation, liberalised markets, privatisation, and the free movement of capital, labour and services. Increasingly, private firms now decide what public, elected bodies used to decide.
This class pretends to help solve AIDS and Africa's poverty by throwing money at the problems - but who does the work of doctoring and nursing, of planting and harvesting? Not Bill Gates or George Soros!
What drives this accumulation of wealth at one pole and of poverty at the other? Could there be some connection? Rothkopf never thinks to ask where all this wealth comes from.
He notes that some `defend elites for their role in globalization, believing that by globalizing they will ultimately help create a more equitable system'. But this globalising has created this hugely unjust system. How could it turn into its opposite and create a fairer society?
He argues, of course, against national sovereignty, and praises all capital's favoured bodies - the EU, the IMF, the World Bank, etc. But far from analysing what is happening and why, Rothkopf tells us little stories about his brief chats with the rich and famous. His favourite meeting is the annual World Economic Forum at Davos, where he can fawn on the godlike figures of Merkel, Sarkozy, Brown and Straw.
This is an embarrassing book, like a long Hello! Magazine without the pictures. Preparing it doubtless extended Mr Rothkopf's social network, but it reveals little of the class he dotes on, while showing all too clearly that he has the mind and morals of a groupie.
Interesting (and Possibly Also Accurate?) July 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book provides an interesting description of a purported global "superclass," the top roughly 6,000 people in the world (or 1 in a million!) who are distinguished by their global power. I say "purported" because I don't have the access to reliably judge whether the author has painted an accurate picture, but I can at least say that the picture appears plausible and the author does seem fairly well connected.
The author goes beyond description to provide some analysis and prediction also, but I would say that this is a weaker element of the book because it's relatively superficial and sketchy, rather than based on any meaningful attempt at modeling or any other form of reasonably rigorous analysis.
At an evaluative and normative level, the author ranges from being appreciative and supportive of the superclass at times, all the way to being (appropriately) condemning and quite worried, but he mostly tries to stay somewhat detached and attempts to at least give the appearance of objectivity. Perhaps this is a reasonable stance, given that it would probably be rather simplistic to view the superclass as "all good" or "all bad" and there's also value in allowing the reader to reach his or her own conclusions.
One negative of the book is that, at least for me, the book was too long relative to its content, so it tended to drag on at times. I think that a shorter and more focused book would have worked better. However, the book was still interesting and well-written enough that I finished it without too much effort, and I came away glad that I read it.
Recommended for anyone interested in what makes the human world tick on a global level, but of course read other books on the topic also to get different perspectives.
Amazing facts June 23, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is an interesting read. It contains many amazing facts. Among them are:
- in 2006, the top 10% worldwide owned 85% of global wealth
- the top 2% own 50%
- the top 1% own 40%
- the bottom 50% barely own 1% of global wealth
That's amazing. We could fix many of the world's problems for very little - if the political systems of the areas that need help would cooperate.
We Need Superheroes June 19, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Rothkopf focuses this book on the so-called Superclass members of the world today (a number he pins at six thousand, making each literally one in a million) and the reality they are creating for the rest of us. These Superclass members span the world of business and finance, government and politics, religion and philanthropy, arts and technology and any other industry out there, each with the power and resources to shape the current world and the future we will come to live in. While a full list of Superclass members would have been interesting, the author purposely omits one, claiming that it would be outdated as soon as released. But he does list several examples of the Superclass and where and how they operate based on his many interviews and fascinating career.
Elites and inequality among societies have existed since the beginning of time, but Rothkopf argues that never before has the elite pool been as global, widely distributed and diverse as today. What also separates the elites of today is that the majority of them did not inherit their wealth and power, but rather earned it through hard work and luck, a stark difference to the elites in centuries past. Whether meeting in boardrooms or at the WEF in Davos, these elites are the few that truly could solve the crucial problems the world presently faces. Spanning across the public and private sector, the question is how these elites will go about seeking understanding and global resolutions, if at all. The Clinton Global Initiative and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have shown they're serious about change. But we need more. In an era where a small sliver of people control more than half of the world's wealth and resources, is a backlash from the non-elites inevitable? Will the Superclass continue to further and protect only their interests, or will they see that promoting the interest of many is the greatest good they could ever do with the resources and influence they have been fortunate to obtain? The twenty-first century awaits the Superclass to become true superheroes.
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