A Theoretical and Methodological Proposal: Using Banking Foundations as a Tool for Studying Elites in Italy

Up until the 1950s great importance was given by sociologists and political scientists to elites as a heuristic tool for understanding social change. After a subsequent half century of relative oblivion, particularly by social scientists rather than historians, (Savage, Williams 2008), a revival in studying elites seems ongoing. ‘Elites’, a dynamic term: ambiguous, divisive, and even objectionable if not properly contextualized. In the history of social sciences, excluding nuances, elites are those who have a disproportionate control over or access to political, economic, social or cognitive resources (Khan, 2012). This definition, while useful in steering research, appear to be tautological and abstract if not rooted in a specific historical process: elites are those who have power, be it possession i.e. wealth and networks (Weberian tradition) or dominion of the power structures (Marxist tradition). My ongoing doctoral research seeks to study elites in action in a particular time and place, using a comparative historical perspective. Its focus is on the formation, circulation and legitimacy of elites and on the existing coherence between individual qualities and occupied positions. Banking foundations (known as FOBS in Italy) are the level of analysis (observatory) proposed: in current-day Italy they appear to provide a point of cohesion for political, economic and financial power. FOBS give the appearance of being real government or para-government institutions (Belligni, Ravazzi, 2013) and they can be seen as an interstitial space between different fields: economics, politics, and so-called "civil society". For this reason, they seem to offer a promising subject that can be used to identify elites. The study considers the largest Italian FOBS (Cariplo and San Paolo), which are the main shareholders of the Intesa San Paolo banking group and probably among the most solid and richest philanthropic investors in the world (Salamon, 2014). They are located in two important contexts of Northern Italy: Milan (the only "almost-global" city in Italy) and Turin (a post-Fordist city), a context with significant differences in culture, institutions and administrative traditions. This paper aims at presenting and discussing a theoretical-methodological proposal, showing first findings and handling two main issues: whether FOBS provide a useful level of analysis for studying elites; and in what way the main theoretical and methodological challenges can be dealt with (difficult access; daily study of government processes; transition from institution-fobs to-elites- actors; difficulties in comparison)? The methodology used in the study is polytheistic (Abbott, 2007). The general approach is historic (medium term), experimental and interpretative. An integrated analysis was applied to identify elites components (inside/outside FOBS), combining positional, reputational and decision-making methods. Document analysis, semi-structured and biographical interviews, and direct observations are taken into account for historical reconstruction of contexts and actors. The first part of the paper contains a brief review of the literature, after which the theoretical and methodological proposal is presented. The second part of the paper contains a discussion of some preliminary results, with reference to my ongoing research, the challenges encountered, possible solutions, and the limits and possibilities of the proposed approach.