en.RSS. A minority group that holds a dominant political, social, economic or cultural position in a society. There are several approaches from which this concept can be addressed: 'classical elites', a concept developed by thinkers such as Vilfredo Pareto or Gaetano Mosca; 'economic elites', understood as groups that control large portions of resources; 'political elites', groups that occupy key positions within the government and the State, with executive capacity to direct the destiny of a nation; 'cultural or intellectual elites', opinion leaders who exert influence over the ideas, values and norms of a society. Typically, elites not only control resources, but also build and maintain networks of influence that allow them to remain.
In opposition to liberal-democratic and Marxist approaches, elite theorists bring a new way of interpreting social phenomena, according to which the circulation of elites is the very essence of history. Changes of regime occur not when rulers are overthrown from below, but when one elite replaces another. The owners of wealth like passengers on a train, and history, indeed, as a cemetery of aristocracies.
Co-fundador de PayPal y Palantir, y responsable de los fondos Clarium Capital y Founders Fund, Peter Thiel no es solo un empresario inversor, sino un ideólogo con una visión de la sociedad que conecta Silicon Valley con la Casa Blanca. Nacido en Alemania en 1967, creció en California, y estudió Filosofía y Derecho en la Universidad de Standord, donde fundó la publicación de corte neoliberal The Stanford Review, principal periódico de la universidad. Racionalista, libertario y elitista.