Dr Malcolm Fairbrother, University of Bristol ABSTRACTWhy have the governments of so many nations decided to globalize their economies in the last 30 years? The literature on this question is polarized

Oxford University Press Today's global economy was largely established by political events and decisions in the 1980s and 90s, when scores of nations opened up their economies to the forces of globaliz

Janine R. Wedel is a university professor in the School of Public Policy at George Mason University and a Senior Research Fellow of the New America Foundation. ABSTRACTA new breed of influence elite ha

If we can affect how many people will be born in the future, what does that mean for our decisions today? Would it be bad if much fewer people would exist in the future, as an adaption to climate chan

Janine Wedel

I am an anthropologist and university professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, and a senior research fellow of the New America Foundation. My main research in

In 2018 the Institute for Futures Studies will host the Kerstin Hesselgrens gästprofessur, held by Janine R Wedel, an American anthtropologist and professor at George Mason University i USA. Janine Wed at the institute in 2016. Follow that link and listen to Janine's TEDx-talk about the shadow elite affecting American politics.

Kremlin influence and the destabilization of Swedish democracy

An analysis of geostrategic market offensives, Russian influence operations, Swedish partners, and the threat of oligarchic capitalism

Journal of Language and Politics, Volume 16, Issue 4, pp. 485–496. Abstract In this paper I discuss, critically, the literature on populism and the extent to which it applies to the contemporary radical

Welcome to Janine Wedel's inaugural lecture as a Kerstin Hesselgrens Visiting Professor: The Role of Elite Corruption in Today’s Illiberalism: Trump as “Trickster,” Why Trumpism is No Accident, and theThis talk, by social anthropologist and public policy professor Janine R. Wedel, examines how the activities of a novel breed of “shadow” or “influence elites” have helped corrode civic trust and fueled the surge in income inequality.  Partly as a result, many citizens in the United States and Europe (notably Poland and Hungary) have turned to demagogic figures who flout both the norms of the rigged system they seek to smash, and the Weltanschauung of the establishment. The talk will explore why people turn to them, Donald Trump’s role as “trickster,” and how Trump and other taboo-breaking, system-busting leaders govern once in power. 

Modern Vikings in the East. Sweden’s Role in 1990’s Russian Economic Reforms: Institutions, Elite Networks, and Informal Practices

What role did Swedish institutions, experts, and elites play in the economic and political development in post-Soviet Russia, with corruption, tax evasion and the emergence of the oligarchy as a result?