Papua New Guinea: The New Elite.

The article reports that there has been considerable debate about whether or not the "leading groups" or strata in newly independent countries should be called "middle classes," "upper classes" or "elites". Similarly, there has been much debate about the degree of cohesiveness or corporateness such elites display, the nature of their power and the relationship between "governing elites," "sub-elites" and "masses". The use of the term elite in this discussion is not meant to indicate the acceptance of any theory concerning the origin or basis of elite power, and the term is used in its most general sense to indicate a group or stratum in a position of preeminence over others. Clearly, a range of possibilities exists along a variety of dimensions such as degree of corporate ness or group character, degree of exclusive control of power, degree of self-awareness, type of relationship with the masses and so on. The aim of the following discussion is to piece together some isolated fragments of "evidence" about the nature of the elite in the Papua New Guinea situation.