John Higley is Emeritus Professor of Government and Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. From 2001-2012, he chaired the International Political Science Association’s Research Committee on Political Elites. His most recent book is The Endangered West: Myopic Elites and Fragile Social Orders in a Threatening World (2016).
Heinrich Best is Senior Professor of Sociology at the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena, Germany. Since 2012 he has chaired the International Political Science Association’s Research Committee on Political Elites. His most recent book is Political Elites in the Transatlantic Crisis (2014, with J. Higley)