The Social Networks of the Public Elite A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of PhD in the Faculty of Humanities 2008 David Peter Griffiths School of Social Science Contents List of Figures……………………………………………………4 Abstract…………………………………………………………..7 List of abbreviations…………………………………………….10 Introduction……………………………………….…………..…11 Chapter One: The state of quangos.............................................16 The nature of quangos…………………………………………..16 Quango board composition………………………...…………...21 The state of elites………………………….……………………29 Demographics of the contemporary social elite…………..…….40 Chapter Two: Studying the public elite…………….………….46 Methodological considerations………………………….……...47 Data collected………………………………………..…………50 Limitations of process………………………………………..…60 Chapter Three: Who are the public elite?..................................63 Basic demographics of quangocrats…………………………….65 Social status of quangocrats……………………………..……...73 Educational background of quangocrats…………………..……77 Chapter Four: The social capital of the public elite……...……84 Quangos……………………………………………………..….85 Business connections……………………………………..…….91 Political affiliation…………………………………………...…96 Private member clubs and professional institutions…..………101 Voluntary organisations…………………….…………………107 Sites of social capital……………………………………….…112 Chapter Five: Network dynamics…………………………..…120 Network or random structure………………..………………...121 Network dynamics………………………………………….....124 One- and two-mode networks………………..………………..132 Structural consistency …………………………..……………..137 Chapter Six: Network positions of quangos…………….……143 Departmental clusters…………………………..……………...144 Central quangos....……………………………..………………151 Isolated quangos………………...……………………………..160 Peripheral quangos…...……………………..…………………165 2 Chapter Seven: Culture and cultural capital………….…..…172 Cohesion within the DCMS………………………..………….172 Capital differences………………………….…………………188 Chapter Eight: The cultural capital of the public elite……....189 Academic and corporate quangocrats…………………..……..191 Academics and public bodies……………………………….....197 Businesspeople and public bodies……………..……………....204 Chapter Nine: The social networks of the public elite…….....221 The study of the public elite ....…..……………..………….….221 Democracy, demography and the quangocracy ……….….......223 Quangocrats and boardroom capital.........…..…………...……231 Bibliography……………………………………………………239 Appendix One: List of quangos in this thesis………………...245 Appendix Two: Availability of data…………………………..252 Word Count: 79,394 3 List of Figures Figure 1.1: Types of quangos.......................................................................................18 Figure 1.2: Types of Bourdieuan capital......................................................................32 Figure 1.3: Higley and Moore’s types of political elite...............................................42 Figure 1.4: Moran’s backgrounds of political elites ....................................................43 Figure 2.1: Networks generated in this thesis..............................................................56 Figure 2.2: Examples of 2-mode networks ..................................................................57 Figure 2.3: Example of a condensed one-mode network.............................................58 Figure 3.1: Number of board members, boards and positions within each department ......................................................................................................................................65 Figure 3.2: Percentage of female board members by department ...............................66 Figure 3.3: Boards containing a majority of female directors .....................................67 Figure 3.4: Boards without a female member, and the size of the board ....................67 Figure 3.5: Percentage of female board members of DTI research councils...............68 Figure 3.6: Ages of board members............................................................................69 Figure 3.7: Average age of quangocrats by department ..............................................71 Figure 3.8: Average ages of boards .............................................................................72 Figure 3.9: Types of honours awarded to quanogcrats................................................74 Figure 3.10: Percentage of quangocrats with an honorary degree, by department......75 Figure 3.11: Quangocrats with honorary degrees from at least 10 universities...........76 Figure 3.12: Awarding institutions of honorary degrees to quangocrats.....................77 Figure 3.13: Percentage of members of each department attending university, by type ......................................................................................................................................79 Figure 3.14: Most popular schools attended by quangocrats.......................................81 Figure 4.1: Quangocrats sitting on three or more boards.............................................87 Figure 4.2: Boards which share five or more directors with other quangos................88 Figure 4.3: Interlocking corporate network .................................................................92 Figure 4.4: Companies with numerous directors sitting on quango boards.................93 Figure 4.5: Quangos with multiple directors of the same company ............................93 Figure 4.6: Employees of FTSE 100 companies on quango boards............................94 Figure 4.7: Percentage of Labour support....................................................................97 Figure 4.8: Number of active members of political parties .........................................97 Figure 4.9: Results of 2005 general election and political persuasion of 2007 quangocrats ..................................................................................................................98 Figure 4.10: Political persuasion of quangocrats by department.................................98 Figure 4.11: Boards represented by all three major parties .........................................99 Figure 4.12: Other quangos with at least three political preferences declared ..........100 Figure 4.13: Percentage of departments' quangocrats who frequent private member clubs ...........................................................................................................................102 Figure 4.14: Most popular clubs attended by quangocrats ........................................103 Figure 4.15: Quangos with the most connections to clubs ........................................103 Figure 4.16: Most popular professional bodies quangocrats affiliate to....................105 Figure 4.17: Most popular institutions quangocrats govern ......................................106 Figure 4.18: Boards with trustees of Northern Irish, Scottish or Welsh charities .....108 Figure 4.19: Most popular charities for quangocrats to work with............................109 Figure 4.20: Number of quangocrats governing the most popular social organisations ....................................................................................................................................111 Figure 4.21: Quangocrats with connections to regions..............................................113 4 Figure 4.22: Quangos with connections to regions....................................................114 Figure 4.23: Quangos with no non-English connections...........................................114 Figure 5.1: Examples of a power law and normal distribution..................................122 Figure 5.2: Network statistics for types of connections.............................................125 Figure 5.3: Degree distribution of interlocking quango directors..............................127 Figure 5.4: Degree-closeness centrality relationship within interlocking quango directorships...............................................................................................................128 Figure 5.5: Degree of interlocking quangos by mutual charity trusteeships or school alumni ........................................................................................................................129 Figure 5.6: Degree of interlocking quangos by mutual private club membership or university alumni .......................................................................................................129 Figure 5.7: Degree-closeness centrality correlations for social organisation positions and university attended networks...............................................................................130 Figure 5.8: Degree-Closeness centrality correlations for private club membership and quango advisory positions..........................................................................................130 Figure 5.9: Degree-closeness centrality correlations for general and board membership of professional bodies ...........................................................................130 Figure 5.10: Degree-Closeness centrality relationship for directorships...................131 Figure 5.11: Degree scores for quango board members ............................................133 Figure 5.12: Degree-Closeness centrality relationship for quangos 2-mode interlocking directors .................................................................................................134 Figure 5.13: Two-mode degree-closeness centrality diagrams for charities, clubs, professional body membership and employers