Corporate elites

This article seeks to explain both the continuity and the changes in US grand strategy since the end of the Cold War by adopting a critical political economy approach that focuses on the social origins of grand strategy-making. Systematically seeking to link agency and structure, we analyse how grand strategy-makers operate within given social contexts, which we define in terms of, on the one hand, elite networks within which these actors are embedded, and, on the other hand, the international structural context in which the US is positioned. After reviewing the grand strategies as pursued by the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, and relating them to the structural context in which they evolved, we proceed by offering a Social Network Analysis in which we compare the networks of key officials of the three administrations in terms of: (1) their corporate affiliations, and (2) their affiliations to so-called policy-planning institutions. On this basis we argue that the continuities of post-Cold War US grand strategy — which we interpret as reproducing America’s long-standing ‘Open Door’ imperialism — can be explained in terms of the continuing dominance of the most transnationally oriented sections of US capital. Second,
we show that, this continuity notwithstanding, there is significant variation in terms of the means by which this grand strategy is reproduced, and argue that we must explain these variations not only in terms of the continuously changing global context, but also as related to some significant differences in affiliation with the policy-planning network.

En los últimos cien años, la sociedad y la economía española han experimentado notables transformaciones, como la consolidación de un Estado democrático de derecho y el ingreso en el reducido club de los países desarrollados. Estas grandes transformaciones también han alcanzado a la élite corporativa. Sin embargo, ¿la profesionalización de los directivos de las grandes empresas ha significado una ruptura con respecto a las viejas prácticas del capitalismo clientelar? Para responder a esta pregunta el texto realiza un análisis de los perfiles de los presidentes y consejeros delegados de las mayores sociedades anónimas españolas, entre 1917 y la actualidad. La aplicación del método prosopográfico a diferentes campos del capital social de los directivos, en nueve fechas seleccionadas, permite comprender mejor el proceso de evolución de la élite corporativa española. Este proceso
incluye un aumento de sus capacidades gerenciales, por la vía de la formación y del capital cosmopolita; no obstante, el avance del capitalismo gerencial no ha supuesto el fin del denominado capitalismo
clientelar, característico de la Restauración y de la dictadura franquista, y en las últimas décadas parece que la nueva élite empresarial está levantando una nueva “trinchera” para defender sus intereses en
perjuicio de los del resto del país.

In the wake of the March 11, 2011 9.0 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, which tore through the Fukushima Daiichi power plants, the future of nuclear energy in Japan was thrown into serious question. Following the horrendous disaster and nuclear meltdown, large citizen mobilizations escalated from the spring of 2011 to the late summer of 2012. Demonstrations of 20,000 to 75,000 people were reported several times in Tokyo, with protesters chanting “Sayonara nuclear
power.”1  Interestingly, these citizen challenges did not, for the most part, arise from the established environmental groups in Japan. As mass protests continued over the course of a year and much of Japanese society grew critical of the hazards of the nuclear industry, a review of news reports, photos, and lists of event endorsers revealed a striking lack of environmental organizations.2 Why were these organizations relatively silent on the largest environmental crisis in the country’s history? Did their close ties to industry and government stifle action, thereby dampening the popular movement and accelerating a return to business as usual?