China's One Child Policy and its rigorous national focus on educational testing are well known. But what happens to those "lucky" few at the very top of the pyramid: elite university students in China who grew up under the One Child Policy and now attend the nation's most prestigious universities? How do they feel about having made it to the top of an extremely competitive educational system—as their parents' only child? What pressures do they face, and how do they cope with the expectations associated with being the best? Fragile Elite explores the contradictions and perplexities of being an elite student through immersive ethnographic research conducted at two top universities in China. Susanne Bregnbæk uncovers the intimate psychological strains students suffer under the pressure imposed on them by parents and state, where the state acts as a parent and the parents reinforce the state. Fragile Elite offers fascinating insights into the intergenerational tensions at work in relation to the ongoing shift in educational policy and definition of what a "quality" student, child, and citizen is in contemporary China.

This volume analyses the position of the urban elites of third century Roman Egypt and shows how steep social and economic hierarchy could exist side by side with a dynamic pattern of elite renewal.

The first book to provide a systematic comparison of the democratic transitions in both Eastern and Southern Europe, covering Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Hungary, Romania, Poland and Bulgaria.

Investigates how elites have affected democratic development in Russia and how they influence the consolidation of the emerging political regime and post-communist patterns of behaviour and attitudes.

ÔThe Elgar Handbook of Civil War and Fragile States is an impressive volume. Its distinguished contributors offer a rich menu of courses, ranging from conflict and war to peacemaking, transitional justice, peacekeeping, and powersharing. Encyclopedic in its scope, the volume encompasses many different approaches to stimulate and provoke the careful reader. It serves up a feast for scholars and policymakers alike.Õ Ð Donald L. Horowitz, Duke University, US The Elgar Handbook of Civil War and Fragile States brings together contributions from a multidisciplinary group of internationally renowned scholars on such important issues as the causes of violent conflicts and state fragility, the challenges of conflict resolution and mediation, and the obstacles to post-conflict reconstruction and durable peace-building. While other companion volumes exist, this detailed and comprehensive book brings together an unrivalled range of disciplinary perspectives, including development economists, quantitative and qualitative political scientists, and sociologists. Topical chapters include; Post-Conflict and State Fragility, Ethnicity, Human Security, Poverty and Conflict, Economic Dimensions of Civil War, Climate Change and Armed Conflict, Rebel Recruitment, Education and Violent Conflict, Obstacles to Peace Settlements and many others. With detailed and comprehensive coverage, this Handbook will appeal to postgraduate and undergraduate students, policymakers, researchers and academics in conflict and peace studies, international relations, international politics and security studies.

For more than a generation now, there has been a competition between two alternative theories of the nature of power in Western democracies: the pluralist model and the critical or elite model (including Marxism). Etzioni-Halevy develops a third or democratic- elite model, based on historical and comparative perspectives. Annotation(c) 2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

This collection explores the distinct features of post-conflict reconstruction and democratic consolidation in Central America. Three sections cover actors; political parties and party systems, the Military and returning refugees; institutions; executive-congressional relations and the judicial system; and the international context; the shifting global/regional dynamic and the impact of the United Nations on the Central American peace process.