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This absence is at least partially explained by the thorough discrediting of nationalism after nazism and the fact that, unlike further east, communist elites did not become corrupt nouveaux riches (and therefore the subject of a rightwing backlash, as in Hungary, for instance).
Political elites look increasingly interchangeable: Blair, Brown, and Cameron have all tried to provide cover for the surrender of sovereignty to foreign investors with invocations of "British" values, and, more opportunistically, anti-immigrant rhetoric.
In the mid-20th century, however, nationalism, though tainted by the blood of European minorities, was the default consensus-building ideology of ruling elites everywhere in Asia and Africa.
In fact, technocracy and populism reinforce each other: liberal elites become ever more distrustful of democracy; illiberal people seek to defy them.
That can mean both those at the very top of the social ladder and those at the very bottom: in the populist imagination, elites work hand in hand with "global finance capitalism" but also pay too much attention (and money) to the poor who do not really belong to us and yet somehow live off us.
And once you notice, it's downright eerie to hear the same arguments – about "out-of-touch elites " who don't connect with the tastes of "real people" – coming from the leader of Ukip and a guy who wrote a book called Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy.
The Lib-Con partnership has been a very British phenomenon, cemented by personal relationships and the success of two party elites discovering sufficient personal chemistry and affinity of objective – principally on fiscal strategy – to keep the show on the road.
At the end of the communist era, civic society was not strong enough to challenge the interests of new and old elites throughout east-central Europe.
Up on the rarefied and leafy heights of Kolonaki, home to some of central Athens' most expensive shops and their exceedingly well-heeled clientele, it was hard to find anyone really upset by Syriza's victory – or worried by Tsipras's warning that the vote was "a defeat for the oligarchs and elites".
It marked a clear break from the coups and subsequent dictatorships installed to defend economic elites that had cast a long shadow across Latin America.
The Government don't really care that much about Scotland, but are terrified that people in England will then say; no house of lords, city of London investment bankers, public school elites in the system of government, we'll have some of that!
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The term "elites " functions primarily as a noun , referring to a select group of people with superior skills, power, or influence. It is commonly used to identify groups that hold significant sway in various sectors, as evidenced by Ludwig's examples from news and opinion pieces.
Expression frequency: Very common
