Shadow Elite : How the World's New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and the Free Market

It 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. Many people today feel that they're swimming in a sea of corruption. Who is really in charge? Why do the same people reappear under various professional identities, pressing a suspect agenda in one influential venue after another? According to award-winning public policy expert Janine Wedel, these are the "shadow elite," and they are both powerful and dangerous. In Shadow Elite, Wedel teaches us to recognize and understand how this new group blurs and erases the boundaries between government, private, and nonprofit organizations--all to their own benefit. The shadow elite ultimately answer only An Award-winning Public Policy Expert And Author Of Collision And Collusion Explains How An Elite Group Of Power-wielding Agenda Promoters Are Erasing The Boundaries Between Government, Private And Non-profit Organizations For Their Own Benefit And Have Been Behind Headline-making Scandals. Confidence Men And Their Flex Lives -- When Privatization Meets Truthiness -- Flex Power In The Wild East -- U.s. Government, Inc. -- The Privatizers -- The Commandeers -- Accountability In The Age Of Flex Nets. Janine R. Wedel. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 207 - 267) And Index. Confidence men and their flex lives When privatization meets truthiness Privatizing power in the post-Cold War East U.S. government, Inc. The privatizers The commandeers Accountability in the age of truthiness. Cont......Page 1 Pref, Ch1,2......Page 4 Ch3,4......Page 31 Ch5,6......Page 64 Ch7,8......Page 104