The New Yorker, January 14, 1980 P. 70
REFLECTIONS about political lites in England, France, and the U.S. While the U.S. does not have a recognizable governing class, England and France do. Discusses each in turn and compares the two European lites. The British have an aristocratic system combined with a meritocracy assimilated to an aristocracy. The French system is closed and formal, recruiting people from grandes coles and grands corps who are aware of a corporate identification and obligation. The American lite are those people who possess power. The problem with an unstructured and democratic lite, such as our own, is that, in a time of fractured structures and a mutation of values, obligation and duty are merely professional. The criterion for membership in the lite is mere success in the climb, the morally neutral ability to perform. This is perhaps one reason that American government in recent years has not been a success.
