The Elite Quality Report 2020 claims to be the “first ever international measurement of elite quality,” aiming to distinguish between elites who are high-quality value creators and elites who are low-quality value extractors.
For readers of this blog, the report will be of interest because it finds the BRIS countries clustered in the lower ranks, with Brazil at 27th out of 32 (by comparison to China, at 12th). Sadly, Brazil is in the worst tercile of the sample when it comes to the political and economic rents that accrue to elites. But it is also interesting that Brazil does marginally better with regard to elites’ potential ability to create value than it does in terms of actually creating value. This bears further reflection.
Overall, the report systematizes lots of interesting comparative data, seeking to distinguish the “who” (elite quality) from the “how” (institutional quality) in effecting the “what” (human and economic development). My sense is that the report may be mistitled, since it what it labels elites is often simply a measure of institutions. But the larger comparisons about value creation and value extraction provide lots of pano para manga (food for thought).
