Elites Choice, Leadership and Succession

by de Pina-Cabral, João; Pedroso de Lima, Antónia

• ISBN13: 9781859733998
• ISBN10: 1859733999
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-04-01
• Publisher: Berg Pub Ltd

Summary

Wealth and power characterize elites, yet despite the strong cultural influences they exert, their study remains underdeveloped. Partly because of complications resulting from access, scholars have tended to focus on groups affected by elite governance rather than on elites themselves. It is often overlooked that, in order to continue through time, elites have to empower new members. Choice has to be exercised over who achieves leadership, both by reference to the elite group itself and to the wider group over which it holds power. This book fills a gap in the current literature by providing the first rigorous interrogation of the choice and succession strategies of elites in various cultural contexts from the transmission and preservation of financial power in urban contexts to the complex relation between subjectivity and the transmission of leadership positions in places as varied as the United States, Northern Italy and Lisbon. Various elite succession types are discussed, from self-avowedly 'traditional' leaders to the aristocracy, where choice is practically non-existent, to situations where leaders are elected from among a group of peers. The relationship between familial property and choice of successor in landholding families, small business enterprises, and peasant communities is also examined, as are ethnic monopolies.

Author Biography

Edited by João de Pina-Cabral, University of Lisbon and Ant=nia Pedroso de Lima University of Lisbon.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
Notes on Contributors	ix
Introduction	1	(8)
Joao de Pina-Cabral
Part I Dynastic Sentiments
The Deep Legacies of Dynastic Subjectivity: The Resonances of a Famous Family Identity in Private and Public Spheres	9	(22)
George E. Marcus
`How Did I Become a Leader in My Family Firm?' Assets for Succession in Contemporary Lisbon Financial Elites	31	(22)
Antonia Pedroso de Lima
Patriarchal Desire: Law and Sentiments of Succession in Italian Capitalist Families	53	(22)
Sylvia Yanagisako
Part II Choice and Tradition
Elite Succession among the Matrilineal Akan of Ghana	75	(16)
Nana Arhin Brempong
`Tradition' versus `Politics': Succession Conflicts in a Chiefdom of North-western Ghana	91	(22)
Carola Lentz
Making the Chief: An Examination of Why Fijian Chiefs Have To Be Elected	113	(20)
Christina Toren
Part III House and Heir
Aristocratic Succession in Portugal (From the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Centuries)	133	(16)
Nuno Goncalo Monteiro
Family, Power and Property: Ascendancy and Decline of a Rural Elite	149	(18)
Jose Manuel Sobral
Part IV Monopolies and Enclaves
Re-serving Succession in a British Enclave	167	(34)
Jean Lave
How Do the Macanese Achieve Collective Action?	201	(26)
Joao de Pina-Cabral
Uncanny Success: Some Closing Remarks	227	(10)
Michael Herzfeld
Bibliography	237	(12)
Index	249