A scientometric review of global research on political elites

Abstract

Political elites are a long-established research topic in the field of Political Science and Political Sociology. Several traditional literature reviews have been published on the subject, discussing the most employed methodologies, outlining the research panorama in specific countries, or making comparative assessments of the state of the art. In an attempt to acquire a clearer understanding of the intellectual landscape of the research on political elites, we performed a quantitative scientometric review of 921 papers published between 1958 and 2021 indexed in the Scopus database. The results showed that the number of
articles published has increased rapidly, especially since 2010. The reference literature showed that political elites is a theme very closely associated with the performance of representative democracies. An overview of this study area showed that the bibliography is first ordered by countries or regions and later by subject. Among the many subjects discussed, studies about elites in former soviet nations stand out. As we look specifically into the production in Latin America, we find a research field structured around Chile and Brazil and a division between, on the one hand, Political Science studies and, on the other, Political Sociology studies heavily influenced by the French Sociology of Elites.