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Introduction

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Abstract

This chapter introduces the concept of elite, which corresponds to the main object of this research. Secondly, it briefly explains why the study of political elites is important in order to understand the evolutive logic of the distribution of power in societies. Moreover, this chapter introduces some key elite studies in Chile in order to provide a context for this research. In the Chilean case, political elite research has often used publicly available biographic information about the elite’s members, relying mostly on qualitative methods. However, over the last years quantitative methods have become a powerful tool to study the origins, performance and evolution of these selected groups. In this the approach based on the definition and analysis of the profiles of the members of the political elite in terms of their familial, educational and professional or political trajectories is relevant for this research. This approach stands out for its development of models of quantitative analysis for studying the effect of certain variables on the political and professional trajectories of the political elites, but does not include work to measure the effects that variables associated with the use of species of capital have on the formation of elites.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The enclaves included el “cuoteo”, elite control of candidate selection and electoral politics, party dominated politics, elitist and extra-institutional policy-making, and the untouchability of the economic model inherited from the Pinochet government (Siavelis, 2009b).

  2. 2.

    After being defeated in 2010 presidential election, the Concertación was replaced by New Majority (“Nueva Mayoría”) coalition, in 2013.

  3. 3.

    The National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (FONDECYT) programme aims to encourage and promote the development of basic scientific and technological research. It is the main public fund of this kind in Chile. It was established in 1981 and has financed over 16,000 research projects, whose impact has benefitted the scientific community and society as a whole. I worked as research assistant on this project. As lead researcher, Dr Joignant gave permission for use of the data. See Appendix 1.

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  1. University of Santiago of Chile (USACH), Santiago, Chile

    Luis Garrido-Vergara

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Garrido-Vergara, L. (2020). Introduction. In: Species of Capital in the Political Elite. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41172-5_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41172-5_1

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