Elites and the People in Global Power Relations

Elites and the People in Global Power Relations challenges the conventional boundaries of International Relations by introducing the Differential Accumulation of Power (DAP) approach. At a time of systemic crisis and eroding democratic legitimacy, this book transcends traditional state-centric and economic paradigms to reveal how the strategic interplay between elite competition and populace mobilisation defines the contemporary global order and its persistent hierarchical structures.

Departing from ‘problem-solving’ theory, the work uniquely integrates the sociology of power and political economy to overcome the artificial separation between domestic and international spheres. It examines the scalar tensions between global and domestic elites as they compete for critical resources, including the state, capital, or the control of information, and reveals how governance often functions to safeguard elite accumulation rather than collective well-being. By analyzing the institutional and ideological ‘trenches’ that protect elite dominance, the book highlights the social function of theory as a catalyst for systemic transformation and a tool to reclaim democratic agency.

This book is essential reading for scholars, researchers, and advanced students in International Relations, Political Science, and Sociology. It offers a radical, critical lens for those seeking to understand the rise of global authoritarianism and the persistent hierarchies that structure our world today.

Ferran Izquierdo-Brichs is a retired professor on International Relations at Autonomous University of Barcelona. His research is focused on the Sociology of power and the Arab world. He has published numerous articles on these issues, and in the last years the books: Social Mobilization in Morocco: Lessons Learned for a Historically Informed Activism (ibidem Verlag, 2023, with J.L. Mateo Dieste, L. Feliu Martínez, and N. Ribas-Mateos); Political Regimes and Neopatrimonialism in Central Asia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, with F. Serra-Massansalvador); and Communist Parties in the Middle East: 100 Years of History (Routledge, 2019, with L. Feliu).

John Etherington is a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Political Science and Public Law of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. He has published on a variety of topics, including nationalism, territorial governance in the EU, and political Islam. His publications include “Nationalism, Exclusion and Violence: a territorial approach”, Studies in Etnicity and Nationalism, 7, 3 (2007); “Nationalism, National Identity and Territory: Jacint Verdaguer and the Catalan renaixença” Ethnic and Racial Studies 33, 10 (2010); Political Islam in a Time of Revolt (Springer, 2017, with F. Izquierdo and L. Feliu).

Guillem Farrés Fernández is a Lecturer of International Relations at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and a member of the Research Group on International Relations and International Law (GERD). He specializes in international conflicts, the theoretical debate in International Relations, and the MENA region. His publications include: “Reanalysing International Conflicts: Proposals from the Sociology of Power,” International Studies 56, no. 4 (2019): 255–71; and “Security Sector Reform and the Competition for Power in Lebanon,” Contemporary Arab Affairs 12, no. 1 (2019): 39–54.]