In
political science and
sociology,
elite theory is a theory of the
state which seeks to describe and explain the power relationships in contemporary society. The theory posits that a small minority, consisting of members of the
economic elite and
policy-planning networks, holds the most power and that this power is independent of a state's democratic elections process. Through positions in
corporations or on corporate boards, and influence over the policy-planning networks through financial support of foundations or positions with
think tanks or policy-discussion groups, members of the "elite" are able to exert significant power over the policy decisions of corporations and governments. An example of this can be found in the
Forbes magazine article (published in December 2009) entitled
The World's Most Powerful People, in which
Forbes purported to list the 67 most powerful people in the world (assigning one "slot" for each 100,000,000 of human population).