Power networks

Abstract

This chapter reviews research on power networks, defined as sets of political actors connected by one or more types of decision-making actions, such as communicating, persuading, influencing, or deciding the outcomes of legislative, regulatory, or judicial issues. It examines research on policy networks in developed nations such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and Japan, and in transitional nations of Eastern Europe and China. It reviews evidence about an emerging transnational corporate class, followed by a discussion of analytic power elite social structures and a methodological illustration using the 1990s Mexican power elite. It concludes with suggestions for future analyses of power networks.