Shadow-Elite-S.Pdf

1 — – 2 Janine R. Wedel Shadow Elite How the Worlds New Power brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, And the Free Market Basic Books 2009 3 Copyright © 2009 by Janine R. Wedel Published by Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatso- ever without written permission except in the case of brief quota- tions embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016-8810. Books published by Basic Books are available at special dis- counts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext, 5000, or e-mail [email protected]. Designed by Jeff Williams Library of Congress Caraloging-in-Publication Data Wedel. Janine R., 1957- Shadow elite: how the world's new power brokers undermine democracy, government, and the free market / Janine R. Wedel. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0- 465-09106-5 (alk. paper) 1. Corruption. 2. Political corruption. 3. Power (Social sciences) 4. Elite (Social sciences) 5. Privatizaton. 6. Government accountability. I. Title. JF1525.C66W 43 2009 320.9-dc22 2009038735 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN 978-0-465-09106-5 4 To my parents, Arnold and Dolores Wedel 5 Table of Contents PREFACE ....................................................................................8 CHAPTER ONE Confidence Men and Their Flex Lives .......................................16 Naming the Animal................................................................21 Evolution of the Species .......................................................35 Beyond Old Boys ..................................................................37 CHAPTER TWO When Privatization Meets Truthiness ........................................47 Redesigning Governing .........................................................53 Delivering New World Orders ..............................................66 Adding Technology to the Mix .............................................70 Slouching Toward Truthiness ...............................................79 CHAPTER THREE Flex Power in the Wild East .......................................................87 Dirty Togetherness ................................................................92 Flex Net Precursors ...............................................................98 The Rise of Flex Nets ..........................................................101 Flexing Forward – to the Past .............................................107 The Neverland of Rywingate ..............................................110 Appropriating the State .......................................................116 CHAPTER FOUR U.S. Government, Inc. ..............................................................123 Who Is the Government? ....................................................127 The Overshadowed Government .........................................130 Government Without Soul ..................................................140 The Information Revolution? .........................................149 Emasculated Government ..............................................155 "Competition" Without Competing .....................................159 Ambiguous Authority .........................................................170 The End of Loyalty to Institutions? ....................................179 Enhanced Executive Power .................................................183 Privatizing Policy ................................................................188 CHAPTER FIVE The Privatizers ..........................................................................191 6 Transnational Togetherness ................................................193 Enter Larry Summers .....................................................200 Guardians of the Gates ...................................................206 Branding Conviction ...........................................................208 Potemkin Privatization ...................................................211 Personalizing Reform .....................................................214 Personalizing Resources ................................................216 Strategic Legerdemain ........................................................219 Power of the Collective ..................................................223 Institutionalized Ambiguity ...........................................227 Supplanting the State ..........................................................231 More Transnational Togetherness .......................................236 Fruits of the Flex Net ..........................................................241 Unflagging Flexians ............................................................242 CHAPTER SIX The Commandeers ....................................................................250 Building the Neocon Core ...................................................254 The Power of the Collective ................................................259 Conviction and Continuity ..................................................262 Sidelining Bureaucracy .......................................................268 Unauthorized, Yet Somehow Authorized ...........................272 Sidelining Expertise ............................................................280 Pursuing Personalized Policy ..............................................288 Familial NGOs ...............................................................290 Perles Homemade Policy ...............................................296 Personalizing the Pentagon, the Vice Presidency, and the Process ...........................................................................299 Organizing Truthiness ....................................................312 Mission Accomplished ...................................................317 And Yet, They Still Go On and On ... ................................318 CHAPTER SEVEN Accountability in the Age of Flex Nets ....................................326 Auditing the Audit ..............................................................331 Serving Multiple Masters ....................................................340 Index..........................................................................................344 7 PREFACE In my work as a social anthropologist, people often tell me unusual stories. for instance, in Poland recently, a scholar and former speaker of the parliament described to me an interaction in police headquarters a few years ago. As one of several es- teemed members of a task force advising the national police on how to transform itself into an institution compatible with democracy, he met with the chief of police and the other advisers. Dur- ing a break in the meeting, he thought he smelled more than the usual cigarette smoke. When he ribbed his fellow advisers, they acknowledged that they, indeed, had been smoking marijuana during the break. While my friend told this lighthearted story to amuse me, sensing I would appreciate its absurdity, it is actually telling. It is the kind of tale that one hears in a society with a long experience of upending official rules – a society that persisted, despite oc- cupying armies, imposed regimes, and the attendant scarcities, re- pressions, and hardships. High-ranking Polish government advisers ignoring prohibitions against smoking marijuana may be inconsequential, but in fact this tale illustrates a willingness, even delight, in flouting rules. Rules were made to be broken, goes the old saying, but rules are also what we live by. Yet rules, I have discovered, are being flouted on a wide scale. Nowadays, even in the democratic-model-for-the-world United States, people are systematically upending rules and authority, not in search of either personal1 enjoyment or basic necessities, but to wield high-level power and influence. I have come to this bold conclusion after spending the better part of three decades observing people as they employ teamwork, flexibility, and ingenuity to work around the rules, and studying the conditions that encourage them to do so. I did this first in Eastern Europe under communism and as countries in the region moved away from it. Then I charted the activities of archetypal players who flouted rules and authority to wield influence, this 8 time on a global stage, and investigated the conditions that encourage them to do so in the wider world and especially in the United States. I have written this book to explain the new breed of transnational players who, far from something as trivial as smoking marijuana, toy with official rules and not only get away with it, but often make decisions about policies that affect us all – in areas ranging from the economy and foreign affairs to government and society – while fashioning new rules of the game to be- nefit themselves. In a twisted sort of way, examining eastern Europe up close – through its transformations away from communism over the last quarter century – has been excellent preparation for making sense of what is happening in the United States today. In com- munist Poland, the necessity of getting around the system bred absurdities, ranging from the employee who "lifts" a desk

Load more