Exportar Publicação

Chainho-Pereira, J., Vale, S., Nunes, N., Botelho, M.C., Henriques, João; Henriques; João Paulo, Casanova, P....Clemente-Casinhas, L. (2026). Varieties of Capitalism Means Varieties of Economic Elites? Southern Europe in the Global Context. SASE 2026 Conference Fighting Divisions: Conflict and Power in a Post Globalisation Order 38th Annual SASE Conference.

J. S. Pereira et al.,  "Varieties of Capitalism Means Varieties of Economic Elites? Southern Europe in the Global Context", in SASE 2026 Conf. Fighting Divisions: Conflict and Power in a Post Globalisation Order 38th Annu. SASE Conf., Bordéus, 2026

@misc{pereira2026_1783161144202,
	author = "Chainho-Pereira, J. and Vale, S. and Nunes, N. and Botelho, M.C. and Henriques, João; Henriques; João Paulo and Casanova, P. and Clemente-Casinhas, L.",
	title = "Varieties of Capitalism Means Varieties of Economic Elites? Southern Europe in the Global Context",
	year = "2026",
	howpublished = "Digital",
	url = "https://sase.org/events/2026-bordeaux/"
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Varieties of Capitalism Means Varieties of Economic Elites? Southern Europe in the Global Context
T2  - SASE 2026 Conference Fighting Divisions: Conflict and Power in a Post Globalisation Order 38th Annual SASE Conference
AU  - Chainho-Pereira, J.
AU  - Vale, S.
AU  - Nunes, N.
AU  - Botelho, M.C.
AU  - Henriques, João; Henriques; João Paulo
AU  - Casanova, P.
AU  - Clemente-Casinhas, L.
PY  - 2026
CY  - Bordéus
UR  - https://sase.org/events/2026-bordeaux/
AB  - While Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) research has demonstrated that complementarities across finance, corporate governance, labor relations, training/education systems, and state–business relations generate distinct national growth and innovation trajectories, it has less frequently treated elites as a central comparative object. Conversely, elite-centered approaches often emphasize agency, concentration of wealth, and capitalist power, while under-specifying how national institutions shape who becomes wealthy, through which sectors, and via what intergenerational channels. Addressing this gap, we ask whether contemporary economic elites primarily reflect enduring institutional diversity (as posited by VoC), exhibit hybridization and institutional drift, or converge toward transnational patterns linked to global capitalism.
This paper investigates Southern European (Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece) economic elites through the lens of the Varieties of Capitalism framework. It argues that just as institutional complementarities in financial systems, corporate governance, labor relations, and education give rise to distinct models of capitalism, they also produce distinct "varieties of economic elites."
The paper tests three hypotheses: H1, that capitalist institutions influence the types and characteristics of national elites; H2, that elite wealth accumulation is systematically higher in specific capitalist models, with downstream consequences for national inequality; and H3, that the highest elite accumulation is associated with more digitalized sectors, while nonetheless reproducing patterned global divisions of labor inherited from earlier phases of industrial capitalism.
Using data from the Forbes World’s Billionaires List (2023), the analysis contrasts Southern European billionaires with their counterparts in Liberal Market Economies (LMEs; e.g., Anglo-American), Coordinated Market Economies (CMEs; e.g., Northern European), and other global cases. Empirically, the study operationalizes elite composition using the Forbes list, constructing comparable indicators at both national and world-regional levels. Elite-level variables include net worth and wealth rank, alongside socio-demographic and biographical markers such as gender, age, country of citizenship, and self-made versus inherited status. Institutional–sectoral positioning is captured through primary activity sectors and subsectors as recorded by Forbes, enabling a mapping of how different capitalist models channel wealth creation into particular industrial and service domains.
To situate elites within broader distributive contexts, we complement these measures with macro indicators from the World Inequality Database (WID), focusing on wealth and income distribution parameters that permit cross-national comparison of concentration, stratification, and the relative position of the super-rich within each society.
A central empirical contribution of this paper is its focused investigation of Southern European economic elites through the VoC perspective. We argue that just as institutional complementarities produce distinct models of capitalism, they also generate distinct varieties of economic elites. The findings reveal that Southern European elites are characterized by a pronounced reliance on family capitalism, wealth accumulation in traditional and domestically oriented sectors (e.g., construction, fashion and retail), and a significant prevalence of inherited fortunes. These traits reflect the region’s specific institutional patterns: weaker capital markets, stronger family-firm networks, and particularistic state–business relations.
By demonstrating how institutional and cultural configurations shape the socio-economic profile, sectoral base, and intergenerational transmission of elite wealth, this study advocates for a geographically and institutionally contingent understanding of elite formation. It contributes to the political economy of inequality by extending the VoC framework to the analysis of the super-rich, showing that pathways to extreme wealth are fundamentally structured by the same factors that produce varieties of capitalism.
Comparing Southern European billionaires with counterparts in LMEs and CMEs, we find that Southern European elites are marked by a pronounced reliance on family capitalism, wealth concentration in more traditional sectors, and a significant prevalence of inherited fortunes. These traits align with the region’s institutional patterns: comparatively weaker capital markets, dense family-firm and ownership networks, and more particularistic state–business relations, which jointly shape both the opportunity structure for wealth creation and the mechanisms through which wealth is preserved and transmitted.
In this sense, the Southern European case provides a clear demonstration of institutional embeddedness in elite formation: it is not only “how much” wealth exists, but also “what kind” of wealth it is (sectoral base), “how it is made” (market-driven entrepreneurship versus control of entrenched assets), and “how it persists” (intergenerational transfer and family governance).
Beyond the Southern European focus, the broader comparative mapping supports the paper’s general claim that elite formation is geographically and institutionally contingent. The evidence aligns with the view that elites do not simply float above national economies as a uniform transnational class; rather, they remain patterned by national regimes even as global markets enable partial convergence in the scale and mobility of wealth. 
This paper advances understanding of why some societies produce not only more wealth and income at the top, but also different forms of top wealth and income, each with distinct distributive and redistributive consequences. It contributes to the political economy of inequality in three keyways. First, it extends the VoC framework from firms and production regimes to the super-rich, showing that pathways to extreme wealth are associated with the institutional configurations that organize capitalism more broadly. Second, it offers an empirically tractable framework for cross-national comparison of elite groups using harmonized elite and inequality data. Third, it reframes debates on elite globalization by specifying where convergence is likely and where institutional diversity endures.
Ultimately, the study argues that explaining contemporary inequality requires treating elites not only as outcomes of capitalism but as institutionally shaped formations whose characteristics vary systematically across different capitalist systems.


ER  -