Page "John Porter (sociologist)" Paragraph 9

:... individuals or groups at the top of our institutions can be designated as elites.

Elites both compete and co-operate with one another: they compete to share in the making of decisions of major importance for the society, and they co-operate because together they keep the society working as a going concern.

Elites govern institutions which have, in the complex world, functional tasks ...

It is elites who have the capacity to introduce change ... ( p. 27 ).