1. Reviewed by Jonathan Young

2.  “Shadow elites” play a key policy-making role in some areas  Changes in society and government have increased the chances for a shadow elite to control a policy area  Shadow elites go around the normal structures of bureaucratic control

3. DimensionFlexiansFlex Nets RelationshipsPersonalizing BureaucracyIntricate spine Agenda and information control Privatizing information while branding conviction Shared conviction and action Formal positions and power base Juggling roles and responsibilities Resource pool Rules and accountability Relaxing rules in the spaces between official and private institutions Hybrid habitat

4.  Flexians are in, not of, organizations  Coincidences of interest  Reshaping bureaucracy  Power through access to information

5.  Focus is on executive branch activity, not writing legislation  Privatization of the functions of the state  Merging of state and private power  Might-be-state, might-be-private entities  Might-be-official, might-be-unofficial roles

6.  Redesign of governing  Outsourcing  Deregulation  Rise of executive power  End of the Cold War  Advent of ever more complex technologies  Embrace of “truthiness”

7.  Private or mixed control over state resources  Contractors, rather than government officials, hold vital information  Policy is developed outside of government decision-making channels  Bureaucracy is unable to monitor or control the “shadow government”

8.  Social anthropologist  Studied Eastern Europe beginning in the 1980s  Interviews, news stories, and personal observation

9.  Harvard Institute for International Development received US AID money to support economic reforms  Small group of Russian officials and American consultants leading multiple commissions – a flex net  Shared economic and policy ideology  Harvard team controlled U.S. policy on economic reform aid

10.  Flex net in President’s office, drafting decrees  Diverged from US AID policy  NGOs headed by flex net members had power to make major privatization decisions  Privatization decisions benefitted those with ties to the flex net; did not result in broad benefits to ordinary Russians

11.  Flex net centered around Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith  Ideology of American military supremacy and preemptive war  Positions in government and NGOs  Drafting and publicizing policy positions  Raising media attention  Lobbying members of Congress

12.  Personalized policy making  Marginalized bureaucratic procedures  Independent intelligence assessments  Created their own bodies of expertise and influence  Increased number of political appointees with fewer bureaucrats  Information campaign – “truthiness”

14.  Stronger regulation  Increased openness  More oversight of contractors  Investigation by government, media and NGOs

15.  This is a pretty specific phenomenon  Convincing examples, but hard to know how common flex nets are  Discomfort with changes from “the way things used to be”

16.  How are policy decisions really made?  Flex activity can be used to pursue financial gain…but also ideologically motivated  Looks at the interaction between private interests and government activity  Private interests may be business interests or may be other interests

17.  I have a hard time knowing if there are other policy areas dominated by flex activity…can you think of any?