Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Bilderberg Conferences: A Transnational Informal Governance Network

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Think Tanks and Global Politics

Abstract

Zieliński analyses the lists of participants of all Bilderberg network meetings during the period 1954–2015. Based on the number of participations, he is able to distinguish two groups: hosts and guests. The hosts are mostly from finance, industry, and royalty, while the guests are mostly politicians and intellectuals. The Bilderberg Conferences are mainly a “white boys club”: non-white participants are a rarity and women represent only around 10% of all participants. The main policy issues are trade liberalization, the Atlantic community, collective security, and monetary union. The institutions and corporations organizing these conferences represent the liberal fraction of the transnational power elite.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aldrich, R. 1997. OSS, CIA and European Unity: The American Committee on United Europe, 1948–1960. Diplomacy & Statecraft 8 (1): 184–227.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andersson, L., and L. Calvano. 2015. Perceived Mobility of Impact: Global Elites and the Bono Effect. Critical Perspectives on International Business 11 (2): 122–136.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aubourg, V. 2003. Organizing Atlanticism: The Bilderberg Group and the Atlantic Institute, 1952–1963. Intelligence and National Security 18 (2): 92–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aubourg, V., G. Bossuat, and G. Scott-Smith (eds.). 2008. European Community, Atlantic Community? Paris: Soleb.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bilderberg Meetings, Confidential Conference Reports, 1954–1955, 1957–1995, 1999, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bilderberg Meetings, Official Agenda and Participants Lists, 1996–1998, 2000, 2001, 2003–2016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, W. 2010. The Making of a Transnational Capitalist Class. London: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, W., and M. Fennema. 2002. Is There a Transnational Business Community? Internationa1 Sociology 17 (3): 393–419.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castells, M. 2011. A Network Theory of Power. International Journal of Communication 5: 773–787.

    Google Scholar 

  • Catlin, G. 1959. The Atlantic Community. Watford: Coram.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chernow, R. 1993. The Warburgs. New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christiansen, T., and C. Neuhold. 2012. International Handbook on Informal Governance. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dahl, R. 1961. Who Governs? New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Domhoff, G.W. 1975. Bohemian Grove and Other Retreats. New York: HarperCollins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Domhoff, G.W. 1990. The Power Elite and the State. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Domhoff, G.W. 2014. Who Rules America? 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Estulin, D. 2009. The True Story of the Bilderberg Group. Walterville, OR: Trine Day.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson, N. 2000 [1998]. The House of Rothschild: The World’s Banker, 1849–1998. New York: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson, N. 2010. High Financier. New York: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geven, R. 2014. Transnational Networks and the Common Market: Business Views on European Integration, 1950–1980. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Maastricht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gijswijt, T. 2007. Uniting the West: The Bilderberg Group, the Cold War and European Integration, 1952–1966. Unpublished PhD thesis, Universität Göttingen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Großmann, J. 2014. Die Internationale der Konservativen. Munich: Oldenbourg.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, J. 2012. Outward Bound: Transnational Capitalism in China. In Financial Elites and Transnational Business: Who Rules the World? eds. G. Murray and J. Scott. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kentor, J. 2005. The Growth of Transnational Business Networks. Journal of World-Systems Research 11 (2): 263–286.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kentor, J., and Y.S. Jang. 2004. Yes, There is a Transnational Business Community. International Sociology 19 (3): 355–368.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knudsen, D. 2016. The Trilateral Commission and Global Governance. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGann, J. 2016. 2015 Global Go to Think Tank Index Report. University of Pennsylvania Scholarly Commons, Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program. http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=think_tanks. Accessed 15 Nov 2016.

  • Mills, C.W. 1956. Power Elite. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitrany, D. 1966 [1943]. A Working Peace System. Chicago: Quadrangle Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nye, J. 2004. Soft Power. New York: Public Affairs.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peschek, J.G. 1987. Policy-planning Organizations. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Retinger, J. 1956. The Bilderberg Group, unpublished confidential paper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richardson, I. 2011. Bilderberg People. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, W. 2004. A Theory of Global Capitalism. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shoup, L. 2015. Wall Street’s Think Tank. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sklair, L. 2001. The Transnational Capitalist Class. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, P. 1980. Bilderberg and the West. In Trilateralism, ed. H. Sklar. Boston: South End Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trachtenberg, M., and Gehrz, C. 2003. America, Europe, and German Rearmament, August–September 1950. In Between Empire and Alliance, ed. M. Trachtenberg. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Useem, M. 1984. The Inner Circle. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • van der Pijl, K. 2012 [1984]. The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wendt, B. 2015. Die Bilderberg-Gruppe. Göttingen: Optimus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiford, H. 2003. CIA Plot, Socialist Conspiracy, or New World Order? The Origins of the Bilderberg Group, 1952–1955. Diplomacy & Statecraft 14 (3): 70–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, J. 2006. De la création d’un marché international des capitaux á l’unification monétaire de l’Europe. In Milieux économiques et intégration euopéenne au XXe siècle, eds. E. Bussière et al. Brussels: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zieliński, A.M. 2016. Mosaiksteine zu einer Archäologie der Bilderberg-Konferenzen. In Wie Eliten Macht organisieren, ed. M. Klöckner, et al. Hamburg: VSA.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland

    Aleksander Miłosz Zieliński

Authors
  1. Aleksander Miłosz Zieliński
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico

    Alejandra Salas-Porras

  2. Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia

    Georgina Murray

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Zieliński, A.M. (2017). The Bilderberg Conferences: A Transnational Informal Governance Network. In: Salas-Porras, A., Murray, G. (eds) Think Tanks and Global Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56756-7_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation