The Oligarchs’ Grip: Fusing Wealth and Power

David Lingelbach; Valentina Rodríguez Guerra

Published by De Gruyter 2024

The Oligarchs’ Grip

Fusing Wealth and Power

David Lingelbach and Valentina Rodríguez Guerra

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111028255

Overview
Contents

About this book

The first ever guide to oligarchs as a global and historical phenomenon.

Today, more than twenty oligarchs serve as heads of state or government in countries such as Russia, South Africa, Lebanon, and El Salvador. Many have a net worth in excess of $1 billion, and they all – whether directly or indirectly – impact our daily lives.

Who are they and how have they dominated our world? What lessons can we learn from them, and what might the future hold?

In The Oligarchs’ Grip: Fusing Wealth and Power, entrepreneurship professor David Lingelbach and oligarch researcher Valentina Rodríguez Guerra draw upon more than 25 years of research (including conversations with Vladimir Putin and other oligarchs), 16 case studies, and dozens of historical examples to develop the first-ever model revealing the strategies oligarchs employ to fuse wealth and power, and transition between the two. This model gives insight into how oligarchs use multiple control mechanisms to exploit an increasingly uncertain world.

The Oligarchs’ Grip is a fascinating read for economists, political scientists, business academics, policymakers, businesspeople and anyone interested in oligarchs and the wealth and power they wield on the politico-economic scene today.

An original contribution to our understanding of oligarchs by showing that their multiple control mechanisms (wealth and power) allow them to better exploit an increasingly uncertain world
A model showing how they gain and fuse wealth and power

Author / Editor information

David Lingelbach is professor of entrepreneurship at the Merrick School of Business, The University of Baltimore. He was educated at MIT, London School of Economics and Political Science, and University of Exeter, from which he received a Ph.D. Prior to becoming an academic, David served in senior roles in finance and international development, including as CEO of Bank of America’s businesses in the former Soviet Union. He has been a Fulbright Scholar (Myanmar/Burma, 2018-19) and Fulbright Specialist (Colombia, 2021) and has been nominated twice for an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship.

Valentina Rodríguez Guerra is an author, oligarch researcher, and graduate student in business administration, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia. She has received awards for her work from NASA and the Colombian Ministry of Education.

Together, they are regular opinion contributors to The Hill on Vladimir Putin and oligarchs.

Reviews

"Oligarchs are, arguably, the main political actors of our era. Any attempt to try and understand who they are, what they are doing, and how they are doing it, is a worthy contribution to public debate ... The Oligarchs‘ Grip offers extraordinary intellectual value. This book provides a much-needed correction to so much academic literature, but even more so to popular culture and journalism." - David Siegel, PhD, Assistant Professor, St. Joseph’s University, Brooklyn, New York

"Since time immemorial, oligarchs have shaped how societies function … and planted the seeds of how they collapse. Given this, as human civilisation faces its latest crises, from environmental degradation and artificial intelligence, this book is a timely one. The portraits of oligarchs and analysis of the bases of their power helps readers to understand more fully how oligarchic power and money interact and nurture each other. No society should trust to luck that 'its' oligarchs are benign. Many are not. By explaining how oligarchs work, this book helps citizens understand how they may be made more accountable for the societies they make, and sometimes, disastrously, unmake." - Dr. Aidan McQuade, author of Ethical Leadership

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
Part I: Types
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1 Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	5
Chapter 2 What Do We Know About Oligarchs? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
Chapter 3 Business Oligarchs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
Chapter 4 Political Oligarchs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
Part II: Strategies
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
Chapter 5 Oligarchs Are Entrepreneurial Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
Chapter 6 Friends with Benefits – Oligarch Alliances and Competition Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
Chapter 7 Waiting for the Main Chance – How Oligarchs Exploit Strategic Timing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	158
Chapter 8 Flying Under the Radar – How Oligarchs Employ Secrecy and Stealthiness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
Part III: Endings
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Chapter 9 Oligarchs in History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
Chapter 10 W(h)ither Oligarchs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Chapter 11 Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
List of Principal Characters (in Alphabetical Order) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275
A Selective Oligarch Chronology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277
Appendix 1: Methodology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
Appendix 2: How We Constructed the Lingelbach-Rodríguez Oligarch Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	283
A Guide to Further Reading Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
List of Figures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
About the Authors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	305
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	307

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Economists, Political scientists, Business School Academics, Policymakers and Think tanks, Businesspeople, Educated Citizens.
Pages
- Front matter: 11
- Main content: 317
Illustrations
- Coloured Illustrations: 9
- Tables: 54
Keywords: Oligarch; plutocrat; wealth; power; entrepreneur; inequality

eBook

Published: November 6, 2023
ISBN: 9783111028255

Paperback

Published: November 6, 2023
ISBN: 9783111027760