Intellectual Competence and the Circulation of Elites: The Crisis of the Late Twentieth Century

Dresch, S.P. (1984). Intellectual Competence and the Circulation of Elites: The Crisis of the Late Twentieth Century. IIASA Working Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: WP-84-012

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Abstract

This paper constitutes a draft, introductory chapter of a planned monograph on labor market developments in advanced economies in the last half of the Twentieth Century. As such, it provides only an interpretive overview of developments in a highly stylized manner. A number of crucial arguments are only suggested or briefly outlined, only limited evidence is presented or referenced, and no attempt is made to "prove" important hypotheses. In particular, this general portrayal will not apply equally to developments in all countries, and even when the general characterization applies, differences in intensity and timing may well be significant. These nuances and qualifications will be more fully developed in the detailed chapters of the monograph.

The conceptual origins of this analysis deserve at least brief reference. Vilfredo Pareto's name, clearly, is securely enshrined in contemporary neoclassical economics. However, since first reading those works of Pareto's available in English two decades ago, I have felt that, notwithstanding the significance of "Pareto optimality," coequal prominence should be awarded to the Paretian concept of the "circulation of elites." Moreover, although Paretian economics is rarely considered to be related in any functional way to Joseph Schumpeter's economic dynamics, and especially to the Schumpeterian concept of "creative destruction," I immediately felt that the two in fact were concerned with closely related facets of the same process. While that relationship is only suggested in this paper. it provided the conceptual core to the formulation developed here. The forthcoming monograph will develop the relationship between "creative destruction" and the "circulation of elites" more explicitly.

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