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European Sociological Review 7:35-53 1991
© 1991 Oxford University Press

research-article

Elite integration in stable democracies: a reconsideration*

JOHN HIGLEY, URSULA HOFFMANN-LANGE, CHARLES KADUSHIN and GWEN MOORE

University of Texas at Austin
Deutsches Jugendinstitut Munich.
Graduate Center of the City University of New York
State University of New York at Albany

Correspondence: *John Higley, Department of Government, Burdine Hall, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712–1087.

Efforts to reconceptualize elite structure and functioning in stable democracies, together with data from surveys of elite interaction networks in three democratic societies, suggest that the conventional power elite, ruling class and pluralist perspectives are only partly accurate and that fusing them in a more realistic model makes much sense. Using data from comparable surveys of national elites in the US, Australia and West Germany, we argue that the configurations of elite circles in these societies reveal tight integration, as in the power elite and ruling class models, together with representation of numerous, diverse groups, as in the pluralist model. We find comprehensive integration in each of the three national elites, with a funnel-like structure of communication networks that is inclusive of all sectors and heterogeneous in the social origins, attitudes and party affiliations of the several hundred most centrally located persons. We contend that an informal interaction structure providing all major elite groups access to decisionmaking is a precondition of any stable democracy.

Manuscript received: November 1, 1990.


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