World Famous Comics: Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making
Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making
By: David Rothkopf Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 400 Publication Date: March 18, 2008 Release Date: March 18, 2008
Each of them is one in a million. They number six thousand on a planet of six billion. They run our governments, our largest corporations, the powerhouses of international finance, the media, world religions, and, from the shadows, the world’s most dangerous criminal and terrorist organizations. They are the global superclass, and they are shaping the history of our time.
Today’s superclass has achieved unprecedented levels of wealth and power. They have globalized more rapidly than any other group. But do they have more in common with one another than with their own countrymen, as nationalist critics have argued? They control globalization more than anyone else. But has their influence fed the growing economic and social inequity that divides the world? What happens behind closeddoor meetings in Davos or aboard corporate jets at 41,000 feet? Conspiracy or collaboration? Deal-making or idle self-indulgence? What does the rise of Asia and Latin America mean for the conventional wisdom that shapes our destinies? Who sets the rules for a group that operates beyond national laws?
Drawn from scores of exclusive interviews and extensive original reporting, Superclass answers all of these questions and more. It draws back the curtain on a privileged society that most of us know little about, even though it profoundly affects our everyday lives. It is the first in-depth examination of the connections between the global communities of leaders who are at the helm of every major enterprise on the planet and control its greatest wealth. And it is an unprecedented examination of the trends within the superclass, which are likely to alter our politics, our institutions, and the shape of the world in which we live.
Enlightening and Empowering I had the pleasure of hosting David Rothkopf at Stanford University a few weeks ago as a speaker in our Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders lecture series. His talk was riveting and the students responded with great enthusiasm. He used the lecture to emphasis the key theme of his book, Superclass, that there is an small, informal network of people around the world who hold an inordinate amount of power when it comes to influencing the political and economic environment around the globe.
The book is filled with fascinating stories that are extremely engaging. David Rothkopf is a masterful writer who uses the first person narrative and an unassuming style to bring you close to the rare individuals who he describes in the book. He takes you behind the scenes at Davos, invites you to sit beside corporate leaders on private jets, and lets you peek into the smoke filled rooms where deals really get done. He shows us how the people who pull the strings in our world have found creative ways to align their interests.
Superclass is well-researched and filled with endless facts that support all of David Rothkopf's ideas. He draws on interesting examples from throughout history as he builds his thesis that there have always been a select few who have much more influence than the bulk of the population. He argues that these elites are the "leaders, innovators, and risk-takers. They are the ones who excel, possess vital experience, and serve as essential connections among centers of power." It is important to note that most of the elites today are self-made. They have identified and seized opportunities, leveraged limited resources, and created value in many different forms. I read the book with great interest and found it informative, enlightening, and empowering.
If you want a preview, feel free to listen to the free podcast of David Rothkopf's talk at Stanford. You can find it here: [...]
I saw Rothkopf on C-SPAN. I saw Rothkopf talk about this book on C-SPAN. I didn't catch every moment, so can't speak to his feelings about "populists and anti-globalists." He is critical of the "Friedmanism" (of Milton and Thomas) that has created an economy that intensifies anti-democratic disparities in wealth. And the person who introduced Rothkopf opened with this comment from Thomas Jefferson, "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country" What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return to Democracy. A person in the audience asked Rothkopf if he felt we were moving toward a society of completely privatized armies, like an "army of Exxon" (as books like Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army suggest). Rothkopf had criticized the US and NATO for its massive weapons spending, but suggested we won't have private armies and claimed that state terror has less of an influence today than in the past. I doubt Iraqis, Afghanis, Palestinians and communities throughout the Global South would share that view. There are even right-wing establishment writers that celebrate state violence Imperial Grunts: On the Ground with the American Military, from Mongolia to the Philippines to Iraq and Beyond; while analysts who have retained their humanity condemn the terror organized by the superclass The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project). Aside from that, I found Rothkopf's presentation to be fascinating, and had its own populist inclinations to it. I look forward to getting the audio version.
More items on the global elite and the popular efforts to empower the rest of us: Rogue Economics: Capitalism's New Reality The Fourth World War The Corporation What We Say Goes: Conversations on U.S. Power in a Changing World The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community (BK Currents) The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics (BK Currents)
Weird! I just listened to David Rothkorf discussing his book on C-Span. He delivered one controlled rant against the "nationalists, populists, anti-globalist..."
The author said it's necessary for the "superclass" to "fine tune" the global system and then all of us will be better off. Sure.
It's important to understand Rothkopf believes giving up national power to an international organization really "extends" the power of the nation state. Weird, to say the least. I guess it's win-win when extending a global system that is keeping down the vast majority of the world.
For Rothkopf it's all about "markets," meaning international markets. He barely mentioned the word, "democracy." As for me, my vote is staying with those ugly nationalists and populists. I suggest you spend your time on something more interesting and worthwhile than another cheer leader for globalism.
Too Long, Yet Superficial Rothkopf estimates that just over 6,000 members comprise his "Superclass" (one in a million) with greatly disparate power - an inequity that he bemoans. (Rothkopf also points out that the proportion of GDP represented by the world's largest companies is growing, as well as the disparity in per-capita GDP among nations, though his attempted explanations are quite weak.) This is not surprising because, similarly, in field after field a tiny percentage of superachievers stand out in terms of their compensation, and enormous wealth (eg. billionaire status) is correlated with power.
The largest group of superachievers is leaders in business and finance. This is because large firms have international reach, with some having sales greater than the GDP of sizable countries. Conversely, most nations' leaders have very limited impact beyond their own borders.(Entities with GDP or sales over $50 billion include 60 countries, and 160 companies - 91 in Europe or the U.S.) Again, Rothkopf is concerned about growing inequality between worker and leader pay (justifiable), and again his suggested explanations are limited and lack credible documentation.
Those in the superclass have the power to set agendas, though not necessarily to achieve them - Rothkopf insinuates that American auto firms' emphasis on large vehicles represents a plot on their part, ignoring the role of consumer preference. Rothkopf also points out that the superclass have not pushed increasing women's' roles or reducing inequality - they're simply out for their own agendas. Free Trade is briefly referenced - in two pages, hardly appropriate.
Looking forward, Rothkopf sees China and those within its leadership assuming greater membership within the superclass - hardly a great insight, though he does add that he doubts the Chinese will follow the model of European-American members. (I suspect they will be more focused on humanitarian goals - at least for the Chinese people.) Rothkopf does make a good point, however, in stating that corporate power vs. political leader power is increasing, though obviously there is a limit when nuclear weapons are potentially involved.
Bottom Line: "Superclass" is basically an elongated application of Pareto's Law, and little else. In addition, it was somewhat frustrating that Rothkopf declined to list those he believes fit into the class.
The Anatomy of Davos Man I was drawn to this book by the lavish endorsements on its back cover. If eminent persons such as a former head of state, a top government official, a senior business leader, a Nobel-prize winner in economics, and the head of an influential think-tank in Washington could extend such praise to a book that is basically a book about themselves, then I needed no further proof that the book was relevant to the topic it was addressing.
But reading David Rothkopf' Superclass was, in the end, a disappointment, and the book fell short of my expectations. To be sure, the author is well connected, he has done some research on the who's who in international affairs, and he writes in an engaging, easy-to-read style. But he does not strike the right balance between critical distance and adherence to his subject-matter, and he remains either too close or too disengaged from the world that he is describing.
Rothkopf has neither the broad perspective of an academic who puts his subject into context and adopts critical lenses to assess its social and political implications, nor the narrow focus of a practitioner who would draw practical lessons from his analysis to address pressing global problems. Neither insider nor outsider, he is more like the devoted fan who came to the party to see the celebrities and who is happy with rubbing shoulders and exchanging a few words with famous people.
The author quotes many interviews that he had with members of the global power elite. These interviews add a cachet of exclusivity to the book and prove that the author has had access to a wide array of powerful people (it is not clear whether the interviews were made in the process of researching the book or as news articles published in the several magazines that the author edited.) But these quotations, reproduced in oral style and narrowly framed by the author's questions, are often dumbed down versions of what the same people have stated more eloquently in books, articles, or lectures.
The book, which quotes many sources, could also have benefited from more references to scholarly debates. The academic studies that are mentioned, such as research on the increase in top income concentration and wealth inequalities, are presented in a very concise manner and some important contributions, such as recent research on CEO compensation, are not mentioned at all. A little bit of editing could also have eliminated some egregious mistakes and overstatements: who would believe, for instance, that the so-called Ten Commandments for Drivers promulgated in 2007 by the Vatican have the effect of law on the daily lives of more than one billion Catholics in the world, as is alleged on p. 41?
Perhaps the biggest revelation in the book is that there is no big secret, no hidden conspiracy or world-wide shadow organization running the show. As Rothkopf concludes, "the individuals who take part in these institutions and who participate in certain elite events, clubs and conferences and casual dinners, probably do not have secret designs for world domination, but most likely do have common interests." They are agenda-setters, not conspirators, and power remains elusive. The most amusing quote I found was the remark of a disgruntled Davos participant who, like the teenager complaining that the really cool party must be someplace else, noted: "you always feel like you are in the wrong place in Davos, like there is some better meeting going on elsewhere in one of the hotels that you really ought to be at. Like the real Davos is happening in secret somewhere."
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