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| Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making | 
 enlarge | Author: David Rothkopf
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $12.95
You Save: $13.05 (50%)
New (34) Used (13) Collectible (2) from $10.38
Avg. Customer Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 24306
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.5
ISBN: 0374272107
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.5209045
EAN: 9780374272104
ASIN: 0374272107
Publication Date: March 18, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. Brand new.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Superclass: Way beyond a Lifestyles or Reality Show approach, it's both captivating and entertaining on a global scale. March 18, 2008
12 out of 15 found this review helpful
I've just finished reading "Superclass" and not only did I enjoy it--Rothkopf is a wonderful writer--but it put into clear perspective some of the most important issues we all are facing today. Rothkopf goes beyond the Forbes list, lifestyles of the rich and famous approach that some authors have taken and he carefully avoids the melodrama and inuendo of conspiracy theories to instead give what is the most balanced view of global elites I have ever seen. He recognizes that every society throughout history has had elites...but he also sees that much of history is made when elites over-reach and backlashes against them result. In our era the problems are different because the elites exist not within countries but "above" them in the global world and so it is not as easy as passing a law or even staging a coup. Some how we need new mechanisms to balance global power and yet we are afraid to even consider such things because it is likely to make nations even weaker than they are today. What's cool about the book though is that he frames these issues in very human terms and substantiates everything very carefully (without it feeling in any way overly academic or boring). I thought it was a terrific book, a great read and recommend it enthusiastically.
Superclass March 19, 2008
11 out of 15 found this review helpful
In the middle of this presidential election year, there is no more timely read than Superclass. Clinton, McCain and Obama may talk about the powers-that-be, David Rothkopf tells you who they are, how they think and how they work on all strata - financial, military, political etc., often intersecting. The book is not only thoroughly researched, it's a fun read, with real moments of levity and extraordinary insight. I came away knowing a good deal more about how power in our world works. This is a must for any informed citizen.
 Too Long, Yet Superficial April 19, 2008
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
Rothkopf estimates that just over 6,000 members comprise his "Superclass" (one in a million) with greatly disparate power - an inequity that he bemoans. (Rothkopf also points out that the proportion of GDP represented by the world's largest companies is growing, as well as the disparity in per-capita GDP among nations, though his attempted explanations are quite weak.) This is not surprising because, similarly, in field after field a tiny percentage of superachievers stand out in terms of their compensation, and enormous wealth (eg. billionaire status) is correlated with power.
The largest group of superachievers is leaders in business and finance. This is because large firms have international reach, with some having sales greater than the GDP of sizable countries. Conversely, most nations' leaders have very limited impact beyond their own borders.(Entities with GDP or sales over $50 billion include 60 countries, and 160 companies - 91 in Europe or the U.S.) Again, Rothkopf is concerned about growing inequality between worker and leader pay (justifiable), and again his suggested explanations are limited and lack credible documentation.
Those in the superclass have the power to set agendas, though not necessarily to achieve them - Rothkopf insinuates that American auto firms' emphasis on large vehicles represents a plot on their part, ignoring the role of consumer preference. Rothkopf also points out that the superclass have not pushed increasing women's' roles or reducing inequality - they're simply out for their own agendas. Free Trade is briefly referenced - in two pages, hardly appropriate.
Looking forward, Rothkopf sees China and those within its leadership assuming greater membership within the superclass - hardly a great insight, though he does add that he doubts the Chinese will follow the model of European-American members. (I suspect they will be more focused on humanitarian goals - at least for the Chinese people.) Rothkopf does make a good point, however, in stating that corporate power vs. political leader power is increasing, though obviously there is a limit when nuclear weapons are potentially involved.
Bottom Line: "Superclass" is basically an elongated application of Pareto's Law, and little else. In addition, it was somewhat frustrating that Rothkopf declined to list those he believes fit into the class.
 Embarrassing July 9, 2008
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
David Rothkopf, an ex-director of Kissinger Associates, has written a revealing book. He notes that a tiny group of about 6,000 people has vastly more power than any other group on the planet, and that the richest 1,000 have more than twice the wealth of the poorest 2.5 billion.
This class comprises mostly top businessmen, mainly from the USA and the EU. Concentration of capital leads to fewer and richer CEOs. Giant firms, banks and private equity companies are this class's base. It advances its interests through self-regulation, liberalised markets, privatisation, and the free movement of capital, labour and services. Increasingly, private firms now decide what public, elected bodies used to decide.
This class pretends to help solve AIDS and Africa's poverty by throwing money at the problems - but who does the work of doctoring and nursing, of planting and harvesting? Not Bill Gates or George Soros!
What drives this accumulation of wealth at one pole and of poverty at the other? Could there be some connection? Rothkopf never thinks to ask where all this wealth comes from.
He notes that some `defend elites for their role in globalization, believing that by globalizing they will ultimately help create a more equitable system'. But this globalising has created this hugely unjust system. How could it turn into its opposite and create a fairer society?
He argues, of course, against national sovereignty, and praises all capital's favoured bodies - the EU, the IMF, the World Bank, etc. But far from analysing what is happening and why, Rothkopf tells us little stories about his brief chats with the rich and famous. His favourite meeting is the annual World Economic Forum at Davos, where he can fawn on the godlike figures of Merkel, Sarkozy, Brown and Straw.
This is an embarrassing book, like a long Hello! Magazine without the pictures. Preparing it doubtless extended Mr Rothkopf's social network, but it reveals little of the class he dotes on, while showing all too clearly that he has the mind and morals of a groupie.
I saw Rothkopf on C-SPAN. April 20, 2008
5 out of 13 found this review helpful
I saw Rothkopf talk about this book on C-SPAN. I didn't catch every moment, so can't speak to his feelings about "populists and anti-globalists." He is critical of the "Friedmanism" (of Milton and Thomas) that has created an economy that intensifies anti-democratic disparities in wealth. And the person who introduced Rothkopf opened with this comment from Thomas Jefferson, "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country" What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return to Democracy.
A person in the audience asked Rothkopf if he felt we were moving toward a society of completely privatized armies, like an "army of Exxon" (as books like Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army suggest). Rothkopf had criticized the US and NATO for its massive weapons spending, but suggested we won't have private armies and claimed that state terror has less of an influence today than in the past. I doubt Iraqis, Afghanis, Palestinians and communities throughout the Global South would share that view. There are even right-wing establishment writers that celebrate state violence Imperial Grunts: On the Ground with the American Military, from Mongolia to the Philippines to Iraq and Beyond; while analysts who have retained their humanity condemn the terror organized by the superclass The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project).
Aside from that, I found Rothkopf's presentation to be fascinating, and had its own populist inclinations to it.
I look forward to getting the audio version.
More items on the global elite and the popular efforts to empower the rest of us:
Rogue Economics: Capitalism's New Reality
The Fourth World War
The Corporation
What We Say Goes: Conversations on U.S. Power in a Changing World
The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community (BK Currents)
The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics (BK Currents)
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