The Marriage of Politics and Economy: Elite Fusion in the Age of Modernization

• In Event: Historical Development of Political Economies

Abstract

Modernization triggers profound political and economic upheavals, challenging established elites while opening avenues for emerging ones. How do these old and new elites respond to these transformations? Previous empirical studies mainly conducted on Britain have revealed that many feudal lords survived and maintained their political and economic statuses through this process; moreover, while modernization fostered an extension of suffrage in many countries, there is a significant time lag before non-aristocratic elites could attain prominent positions. Although these studies show the outcome of modernization, that is, feudal elites’ persistence and emerging elites’ struggles, limited research has examined the process itself, that is, how established elites survive and how emerging elites integrate into existing elite networks.
Given the insights of these studies, we explore the evolution of elites and their kinship networks and assess the durability/changeability of elite communities under modernization. To this end, we constructed a novel large dataset on Japanese elite kinship ties in the early twentieth century, when Japan was undergoing economic and political modernization, that is, modern economic development and voter expansion. Encompassing 836 Japanese elites in 1902, 1277 in 1914, and 1661 in 1927, our study employs network analyses to examine the evolution of old and new elites' kinship networks. Furthermore, our regression analyses study the changes in the relationship between centrality within elite kinship networks and the political and economic positions of elites.
Focusing on Japan offers advantages for addressing this issue. First, elimination of segregation between social strata and the modernization process occurred simultaneously in Japan, which enables us to clearly distinguish old elites from new elites. Moreover, compared to Western countries, Japan is distinct in that consistent quantitative and qualitative elite data covering the entire process of modernization, including the early stages, are available. Hence, we can consistently observe the evolution of the elite community as an essential part of the modernization process by utilizing data from Japan.
Several significant findings emerged. First, by 1902, many new political and economic elites appeared in elite communities, namely, non-peerage politicians and directors of large firms. In this respect, modernization transformed elite communities in Japan. However, while peerage political elites had dense kinship networks within them, most non-peerage political and economic elites did not have kinship networks either within them or with other categories of elites. Second, peerage political elites increased their centrality in elite networks over time. They not only strengthened networks within them but also newly formed kinship ties with economic elites. Third, for some elite categories, political or economic positions were associated with their centrality in the elite kinship community. For peerage political elites, centrality consistently correlated with their political positions throughout the period under examination. For the economic elites, although centrality was not correlated with their economic positions in terms of the scale of firms in which they worked as directors in 1902, these two variables became correlated by 1927. This implies that only economic elites with higher economic positions could make kinship ties with other elites, particularly peerage political elites. In summary, although modern state-building and economic development provided opportunities for commoners to become new political and economic elites and shook traditional elite communities, old peerage elites survived and expanded their kinship networks with new economic elites, which resulted in an extended elite community fusing old and new elite.
This study contributes to three strands of the literature: First, it contributes to the literature on state building. In previous literature, one central inquiry revolves around whether elites impede economic, social, and political development. We add insights by showing how elite kinship networks adapted and evolved in response to changing environments. Second, this study relates to the literature on elite compromise during a regime change. Although some studies have analyzed the mobility of political elites during regime change, there is limited knowledge regarding how such elite compromise influences the interconnection of old and new elite kinship networks. Our research endeavors to unveil the transformations that occurred within elite kinship networks during this transitional period. Third, it is related to the literature on the long-term durability of social status, which mostly focus on father-son relationship. Our study, encompassing both paternal and maternal relationships, adds insights into the relationship between elite kinship networks and the low intergenerational durability of status.

Authors

• Tomoko Matsumoto, Tokyo University of Science

• Tetsuji Okazaki, The University of Tokyo