Euro-elites: top British, French and German managers in the 1980s and 1990s

As European economic integration proceeds, this paper examines the integration of managerial elites in the major West European economies. It finds that top manager profiles in France, Germany and the United Kingdom have changed very little despite major internal and external pressures over the last two decades. French top managers still enjoy strong family and State connections. German managers remain strongly oriented to engineering. The power of finance professionals in British boardrooms has only grown stronger. The article traces these enduring national patterns of elite formation to distinct educational and ownership systems in each of the three countries. Though there are signs of increasing convergence amongst the national elites, the article suggests that this is likely to be slow.