Based on two unique survey studies of elites in Norway, this book examines whether elite attitudes towards central national issues have changed in the wake of international and national events and developments since 2000. The chapters examine elite integration and relations between elites and citizens in Norway as a means to discuss the continued viability of the Nordic welfare state model. This insight into how elites relate to central issues in Norwegian society and how they look upon citizens' political interest and competence in general, will be of interest to academics within sociology and political science, as well as journalists and commentators and policy makers.

This volume contains an Open Access chapter. Relationships between elites and democracy have always been strained. The very concept of elites - of 'chosen people' - stands in contradiction to democratic ideals of political equality. Simultaneously, they are necessary parts of democratic societies. In any large-scale society, democracy is unthinkable without large organizations, be they political bodies, bureaucracies, enterprises, or voluntary organizations. When power is concentrated at the summit of such organizations the incumbents of the top positions potentially constitute groups that often are termed elite groups. The present volume of Comparative Social Research offers a broad set of comparative studies of elites, stretching from the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt to women's political leadership in Brazil and Germany, via attainment of elite positions among minorities in France and the US. The quality of democratic governance seems to be in decline in many parts of contemporary world. Nevertheless, political elections are still a main source of legitimacy, even when they are far from being free and fair. Developments in the Third Wave democracies established around 1990 both in Europe and in the rest of the world, are treated in several chapters. How do they fare two or three decades later? Another group of chapters sets the focus on elite recruitment and socialization, spelled out against class and gender. The volume concludes by highlighting various entanglements of elites with populism, concerning both underlying reasons for the recent populist expansion and the various images of elites in populist movements.

How can the existence of elites be compatible with democratic governance? Any democratic society is inevitably confronted by this basic question. This book reviews existing research on elites and their interactions with those around them. How the recruitment to elites changes in the long run according to class and gender is one of the core themes of the present volume. Other topics explored include the relationship between elites and the population, collective action and elite cohesion, and elites and democracy. The approach is multinational, with examples provided from countries around the world. This is a valuable book for social science students and researchers of many disciplines, including sociology, political science and psychology. It offers a review on historical and current research on elites in society and includes an extensive discussion of class and gender. Examples from countries in different parts of the world allow for international insights.

Based on two unique survey studies of elites in Norway, this book examines whether elite attitudes towards central national issues have changed in the wake of international and national events and developments since 2000. The chapters examine elite integration and relations between elites and citizens in Norway as a means to discuss the continued viability of the Nordic welfare state model. This insight into how elites relate to central issues in Norwegian society and how they look upon citizens' political interest and competence in general, will be of interest to academics within sociology and political science, as well as journalists and commentators and policy makers.