Shadow Elite: How the World's New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and the Free MarketIt can feel like we're swimming in a sea of corruption. It's unclear who exactly is in charge and what role they play. The same influential people seem to reappear time after time in different professional guises, pressing their own agendas in one venue after another. According to award-winning public policy scholar and anthropologist Janine Wedel, these are the powerful "shadow elite," the main players in a vexing new system of power and influence. In this groundbreaking book, Wedel charts how this shadow elite, loyal only to their own, challenge both governments'; rules of accountability and business codes of competition to accomplish their own goals. From the Harvard economists who helped privatize post-Soviet Russia and the neoconservatives who have helped privatize American foreign policy (culminating with the debacle that is Iraq) to the many private players who daily make public decisions without public input, these manipulators both grace the front pages and operate behind the scenes. Wherever they maneuver, they flout once-sacrosanct boundaries between state and private. Profoundly original, Shadow Elite gives us the tools we need to recognize these powerful yet elusive players and comprehend the new system. Nothing less than our ability for self-government and our freedom are at stake. |
Contents
1 | |
When Privatization Meets Truthiness | 23 |
Flex Power in the Wild East | 47 |
U S Government Inc | 73 |
The Privatizers | 111 |
The Commandeers | 147 |
Accountability in the Age of Flex Nets | 193 |
Other editions - View all
Shadow Elite: How the World's New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy ... Janine R. Wedel Limited preview - 2009 |
Shadow Elite: How the World's New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy ... Janine R. Wedel Limited preview - 2010 |
Shadow Elite: How the World's New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy ... Janine R. Wedel No preview available - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
accountability Acquisition Advisory Panel activities administration agencies Ahmed Chalabi American Andrei Shleifer Audit author’s interview authority Boycko bureaucracy Bush CACI Center Chalabi Chubais Chubais-Harvard players clans Committee communist consultant contracting contractors democracy Department deputy director Douglas Feith economic elites employees Enron entities ernment executive Federal Feith flex nets flexians funds Gazprom global Government Accountability Office Harvard helped Homeland Security IDIQ influence instance institutional nomads intelligence investigation Iran Iraq Jim Lobe Jonathan Hay June Kelman Ledeen Management Meyrav Wurmser military million missile defense National Security Neocon core neoconservatives neoliberal networks NGOs official operations organizations outsourcing oversight Paul Wolfowitz Pentagon political President procurement quote reform regard Richard Perle roles Russian Sachs Shleifer Soviet Team think tanks tion today’s truthiness U.S. government United USAID Washington Post Wedel Wolfowitz York