The New Professional Econocracy and the Maintenance of Elite Power

This paper begins by asking how have elites, who are more fragmented, transitory and precarious than ever, continued to do so well out of discredited, financialized capitalist democracy? One possible answer lies in what I term the new professional econocracy. As the paper reveals, an increasing proportion of elite figures at the top of business and government now have educational and/or professional experiences of economics and related disciplines. On the one hand, this provides the basis of a shared professional discourse and accompanying set of norms, values and practices. This unites disparate and mobile elites. On the other hand, such knowledge enables these elites to both move across sectors and game the economic and accounting systems that they have helped construct. Thus, elites reflexively adapt to, and benefit from, economic rules while also rigidly dictating them to those below.